DEFINING HAPPINESS:
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In the past, people thought happiness meant simply not feeling pain or stress. But that idea is too narrow. It doesn’t cover really enjoying life. To stay happy over time, we have to work hard at it—not like doing a job or physical work, but by fighting against a tendency in our brains to focus on the negative.
HOW NEGATIVITY DEVELOPED IN HUMAN: The Evolutionary Roots of Our Negativity Bias
At first, this idea might seem odd, but there's a logical explanation behind it. Survival in ancient times meant facing constant challenges. To navigate these challenges effectively, our ancestors had to be able to tell the difference between threats and harmless situations. Being highly alert to potential dangers was crucial for staying alive, while being unaware often led to peril. Consequently, our ancestors developed a tendency to focus on potential problems, known as a negativity bias, as a survival strategy. This bias ingrained in our brains compels us to seek out potential threats in order to avoid them.
Welcome to the modern era. Instead of fleeing from lions or barking dogs, we're now inundated with emails around the clock and tasked with completing complex projects. Stress has adapted alongside humanity. The initial step in addressing any issue is acknowledging its existence. Once we do that, we can take proactive measures to manage the daily pressures by prioritizing our work.
Types of happiness:
An important fact to remember is that happiness is a complex concept that has many layers, like onions.Again it is very much connected to what we do. Martin Seligman classified the three levels of happiness as: the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.
The Pleasant Life: This type of happiness is focused on experiencing pleasure and positive emotions. It involves maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain in life. People pursuing the pleasant life seek to enjoy life's simple pleasures and aim to experience as much joy and happiness as possible.
the pleasant life isn’t sustainable. The pleasant life
doesn’t last, it’s fleeting, and after about six months you will begin to feel
a drain in your overall happiness. You can try and replenish your happiness by
buying more things, but one should heed the law of diminishing returns. The
more you try to fill up your personal happiness with the pleasant life, the
less satisfied and happy you will feel in the long run. Research shows that
obtaining material goods (e.g. buying a private jet etc.) only gives you about
six months of contentment before that feeling will begin to diminish.”Unhappy
is the soul that pines tis hope on anything that is material”
The Good Life: The good life involves engaging in activities that bring about a state of flow, where you're fully absorbed and immersed in what you're doing. It's about pursuing activities that you're passionate about and finding meaning and fulfillment in them. This type of happiness is characterized by the pursuit of personal strengths and virtues, leading to a sense of accomplishment and purpose.
To move upward and onward into the good life, one should
focus on strengthening the areas where you have talent and align them with
yours passions and the work you do everyday. The good life provides a sense of
fulfillment that in turn makes it easier to focus on your work. When the
challenges of work match your ability and talents, you move into a state that
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi terms ‘Flow”. In this state of Flow, you are
temporarily lost in your work. You remain oblivious of time, your physical needs,
and your sense of self.
When one engages in the good life, one is in temporary
forgetfulness of self, emotional baggage from the past and worries about the
future.One’s mind is fully attentive to the task at hand. This turns work into a meditation. It’s a
healthy cycle that is built on having a focused mind, tough inner-will, and the
desire to improve and change.
The Meaningful Life: This type of happiness is focused on finding a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life. It involves using your strengths and talents to contribute to something greater than yourself, such as serving others or working towards a larger goal. The meaningful life is about living in alignment with your values and making a positive impact on the world.
To enter the meaningful life, you must work for a purpose
higher than yourself so you can transcend your sense of self. The essence of
the meaningful life is forgetting oneself so the focus becomes the work that
needs to get done rather than the individual. If you go down this path, then it
becomes significantly easier to touch lives and hearts with the work you are
doing, which in turn will make you and others happier.
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Day
of the Week |
Theme
|
Activity
|
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Monday |
Gratitude |
Think
of 5 people you are grateful for in your life and take a minute to think
about how you are grateful for them in your life. |
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Tuesday |
Compassion |
Think
of the people you love in your life and remember why you love them. Think of
the people in your life who you don’t like and show them compassion. |
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Wednesday |
Acceptance |
Accept
yourself for your faults. None of us are perfect. Acceptance leads to
improvement. |
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Thursday |
Find Meaning |
Find meaning
throughout your day. Perhaps the Cosmos is trying to show you a sign? |
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Friday |
Forgiveness |
Forgive your enemies, for they are in pain
too. Forgive those you love, nobody is
perfect. Forgive yourself, everyone makes mistakes. |
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Saturday |
Celebration |
Celebrate a great week! What are the
highlights? |
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Sunday |
Reflection |
Remember
the pros and cons of the previous week. What can you do to prepare for a
successful week? |
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As a first step to
achieving this stage |
|
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start by doing a few
“brain rewiring interventions”; to be
done every day for a couple of minutes as soon as you wake up in the morning.
There are seven of them and you do one each day of the week in the morning and
evening. These interventions are the research work of Amit Sood, MD, at The
Mayo Clinic. They help counter the negative energy that is associated with the
daily stress we are hardwired to endure. The only cure for stressful despair is
action. So each morning start off strong by contemplating each intervention.
One can only make a meaningful difference and fix what is
wrong with this world when one is happy. By overcoming our natural negativity
bias and rewiring our own brains to focus on the present we can begin to make
meaningful changes in not just our own lives, but the in the world around us.
Happiness and moral integrity doesn’t just impact the person’s daily life; it
permeates organisations that play on the world stage.
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