Have you ever thought that everyone seems to be living extremely happy lives, except for you? And that maybe if you achieve your goals of finding a partner, succeeding at work or having a lot of money, you might become very happy too?
Conscioused shared with Traveling and Living in Peru a very interesting article that explains that modern psychology describes happiness as two things: An emotion; And as life satisfaction.
When experiencing happiness as an emotion many people tend to act like if they are not happy 100% of the time, then something is not right. “However, we should be conscious that experiencing these short term emotional highs does not equate to long term happiness”, Conscioused said.
Also, people try to suppress negative emotions, only to have them accumulate over time because of the thought that it is bad not to be a happy person. Nevertheless, this creates a huge amount of pressure to be happy all of the time.
“It’s possible to be a raging success on the surface and feel completely dissatisfied with life, but it’s also possible to have nothing in the material world and be completely satisfied with life,” according to Conscioused.
To find life satisfaction, this article suggests: First, find a meaning. “We find meaning in relationships with loved ones, through parenthood, spirituality, contributing to others or simply through the fact that we are alive. Ultimately each one of us is responsible for creating our own meaning,” they said.
Second, be grateful for what you do have in your life right now, and finally, be present. “Empirically, we spend at least 50% of our waking time mind wandering not focused on the present moment; and the impact of this on our self reported level of satisfaction is clear”, according to the article.
So tell us, how happy are you?