Happiness Quotient- 3
By Shiva Shanmuganandam @SadaaShiv
Happiness is everything. Don’t put off until tomorrow, the happiness that awaits you today. Be happy and make your natural state happy, before it becomes your nature and rub off onto others. Most happy people don’t do anything in particular to be happy, they do everything happily. The Happiness in being healthy, wealthy or any other such matter (like Success for example), takes its root from within you. You are its source and Happiness is ultimately experienced by you.
- Find a Doctor and make him your Happiness Coach. You are your best Doctor and take steps to not only hone your ability to listen to your body and your instincts but also simultaneously hone your ability to progress to being your own Happiness Coach. When we stop listening to our body signals, they take form as symptoms. Disorders quickly settle-in as Diseases. When we neglect our instincts long enough, we tend to become almost deaf to them over an extended period of time.
P.S. – Do not self-medicate yourself (Risk of high toxicity levels).
- Try making someone else Happy from time to time. Surrounding yourself with happy thoughts and Happy people are directly proportional. Having said that, your own Happiness should not be at the cost of another person and conversely try to spread the Happiness. Try to make someone happy who cannot reciprocate in this lifetime, not by material means but by empathy and sincerity. Remember, above all be ‘Sincere’. Let someone else take the prime parking space or get ahead of you in a queue. A study from the University of Michigan reveals that people who give support and assistance to others live longer (which means they can continue to give, that much longer).
- Turn inward by spending time outdoors. When you bathe your skin can absorb as much as a litre and a half of water. Similarly being outdoors in good weather or windy conditions can help you unwind and not just merely bodily relaxation. Especially because we spend most of our lives indoors, a little sunshine, wind on your face, or nature walks with friends and family can be uplifting and quickly becomes a habit and eventually help live in harmony with your environment. Read a book outdoors on a hammock or do gardening, it is not only therapeutic but also gets your mind away from your mundane worries. Many studies have shown that spending time with your pet eases feelings of stress, loneliness and depression. After a long day at work, playing with your pet is a great way to recharge and rejuvenate. If you don’t own a pet or cannot, offer to walk a friend’s pet or your neighbours’.
- Take your daily dose of Multivitamin and Calcium. Milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, orange juice and dark-green leafy vegetables are high in calcium and many essential vitamins. Nutritionally sound diet can help avoid artificial intake of multivitamins and Calcium tablets altogether. Be conscious of the nutritional value of your food and fluid intake (there are several secreting organs in the human body that need sufficient Fluid intake as well). Up to age 50, adults need 1,000 milligrams of calcium per day in their diet. According to a recent study, half of all children under age 5, 35% of teenage boys, and about 85% of teenage girls do not consume the daily calcium recommended by experts.
- Have a healthy Laugh. Humour is a great way to release tension and shake off unwanted bad mood. It can make someone’s day, and your workday more fun as long as the humour is appropriate and not offensive to others, and doesn’t go overboard. Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself. Use humour to lighten up a situation. Look for opportunities to laugh with colleagues and not to laugh at them. Revive the old habit of taking paper clippings of cartoons (from Newspapers or magazines) that make you laugh, instead of merely satirical or with a heavy political undertone.
- Music and Musings. It is no accident that music is a feature of all human cultures. Sound, when it becomes music, is the only thing which can possess people that they drop all their inhibitions and, just for a precious moment, they dance. Music can entertain us, distract us from our worries, stimulate our brain, and be uplifting. ‘If music be the food of love, play on!’ : Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Music is a manifestation of sound, and sound exists wherever there is energy, which means heat, which means light. The right kind of music acts as a way of lighting up the way for one’s consciousness. If music can affect its listeners so powerfully think what it must do for its player/musician. Make your own music. Sing or play an instrument. Listen to music on your way home from a long day’s work. Make yourself “feel good” or ‘Uplifting’ music collection and play it when you need to feel uplifted. Modern Neuroscience studies indicate that it is not the sound, in and of itself that creates the pleasure effect in humans, but rather the pause between two intermittent sounds.
- Create a sleep mood or take naps. Not sleeping enough can affect your mood, your work and ultimately how you feel. Most of adults are sleep deprived with an average of 6 hours 54 minutes of sleep; about an hour less than the 8 hours recommended by experts. Help your body (and the mind) make the transition from busy awake time to sleep-time by creating a sleep mood an hour before hitting the bed. This is very important ‘Me-Time’, when there should be no work, no TV, worry about your bills or your deadlines. Use this time to relax and before you know, you will be nodding off. Tip: If, after 20-30 minutes in bed, you don’t fall asleep, get out of bed, and do something relaxing, such as reading or a quick shower. A quick, refreshing “power nap” can do wonders for your mental health and physical health. However, napping for longer than 20-30 minutes can spoil your regular sleep cycle and habits. So don’t overdo it.
- Beauty and the Beholder. The simple act of pausing in hectic day and looking at something beautiful can improve your overall outlook towards everything and leave you feeling deeply content. Put a picture of someone you love in your workplace. Savour sunsets and sunrises (if you work the late shifts). Put a vase of flowers in your work area or field of vision. Hang a favourite print or painting which you will never get tired of gazing at, or simply paint one yourself if you fancy.
