How you Measure your Happiness can Determine your Quality of Life

You must look within yourself when times are blue because happiness is a thing that lives in you — Karen Hamilton

The quick gain of an approaching loss is a perfect description of my journey to finding happiness.

We often convince ourselves that we will be happy when:

• we wed
• our children grow
• we get a job
• we start a business
• we make more money

The truth is that great moments have brushed our shoulders, and the most beautiful days have stayed under our roofs. At least this is true for me.

The tragedy is that the good moments gradually become icy cold.

I got selectively blind to their presence. Sadly, this familiarity mercilessly threw me back into another fruitless happiness journey. But things changed when I paused, and asked myself a different question.

The question had little to do with what was next for me, but what wrong beliefs I began with.

Revisiting your meaning of happiness is your first task to discovering lasting happiness.

Change your meaning of happiness and shift your life for good

Maybe our reality of happiness is off, to begin with.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote in his book Flow, that the universe was not created for the comfort of humans in mind. And if that’s the truth, then finding happiness from insatiable, and impermanent things in our environment becomes a tall order.

If you are looking for happiness externally, then you better go back to the drawing board.

Train your mind for happiness

Even those who have experimented on psychedelic drugs before, can tell of how fleeting the experience is.

Ram Dass, one of the top meditation teachers shares his experience, and lessons on how training the mind can be the solution to ecstasy, and lasting joy.

In his book Be Here Now, he shares that real happiness lies in that which never comes, and goes. And this is plausible with meditation mindfulness.

Happiness is a state of mind which does not depend on any circumstances.

To cultivate the recipe for happiness, you have to start with self-awareness, or knowing thyself as beautifully captured by Socrates.

Socrates wisdom on Happiness

Know thyself is inscribed at the entrance of the Appolo temple at Delphi.

Self-awareness, or self-knowledge is a critical skill in life that we need in order to begin accessing our happiness state.

The quality of your consciousness moment to moment is what you need to cultivate, and bring to your attention.

When you pay attention to each moment mindfully, you transform your happiness state into an altered trait a name coined by Daniel Goleman.

In his groundbreaking research, he revealed that people who practiced moment-to-moment attention end up with permanent traits such as loving presence, easiness, happiness, and equanimity under any circumstance.

Pay attention to every moment without labeling or judging

By fully engaging, and paying attention to each of our experiences, we allow every pore of our being to absorb the light, and the energy of life. This we can achieve by swimming in the joy of the here, and now.

When we are aware, and in control of our emotions, feelings, biases, beliefs, limitations, thoughts, and environment, then we learn to direct our lives accordingly.

The feeling of being in control no matter the situation gives us the confidence to handle any issues we face, make wise decisions, hold off our judgment, emotions, and labeling.

If you can learn to access your calmness, stillness, equanimity, and happiness in any circumstances, then your quality of life can change for the better.

Don’t look into the future for happiness.

Don’t look into your past for memorable happy moments.

Happiness is happening now.

Tap into the flow of life, and do not allow every fullness of the unfolding moment to slip through your fingers.

The darkest periods of your life can still hold your happiness, only when you learn to be fully engaged in every action, every moment, and every breath.

Kay Cammer’s wisdom can guide you every day, she says, “live each hour as you find it, for happiness is now when the hour begins.”

Repeat after me: Happiness is now when the hour begins