When I embarked on this year, there were a few things I
promised myself.
One of those things was to be inherently happy.
I got to know about #100happydays quite a few days later.
I am all for social experiments and so joined the bandwagon.
After the 4th day, one of the two things kept happening to me.
Either I had lots of moments in a day to be happy about or I had nothing
special to talk about.
So I quit.
My utter state of panic and confusion of what I should be
posting on Facebook bought me to realize a few things about happiness and the
pathetic state #100happydays brings to our lives.
Should Happiness be defined by what our amazing digital life portrays
to 600 people we 'kind of' know?
I love facebook. I am in the business of engagement and
making sure social lines are blurred when it comes to communication. But the
constant search for something different, weird and awesome to share on facebook
to show people how happy you are is quite stressful isn’t it?
On a larger scale, it is quite sad that we need to find experiments to
be happy
Happiness is a state of mind that we should constantly be
in. Have we become so negative with everything around us that we need something
to remind us to find one thing in a day that makes us happy?
A friend recently told me that being happy was his default
setting. Simple, straight and to the point. There was no other option.
Looking at how 2014 is progressing, in the past 30 days, I
have been inherently happy because of one simple thing. I told myself that in
2014, happy is what I will be. Anything else is not an option.
I have had 100 moments of happiness a day and they are so
silly and simple that I cant even bring myself to think about serving them on a
status platter to the 450 people I happen to share my life with on facebook!
Here are the 5 simple things I did and achieved #ahappylife
(Readers, please apply at your own risk)
Eliminated negative
people from my life
They are lovely, they are right but they are all wrong for
me. People who are jealous, find the worst in every situation and have a life
that revolves around work. They just don’t transpire their limited positivity
to me. So out they have to go!
Bought the positive
people closer to me
Life is all about give and take. Maintaining relationships
takes an effort and I believe for those few that bring you happiness, it is
worth the extra few steps.
I had to get out of my shell, express and radiate love to
get back the same from those who make my world a happy place. Trust me, it was
worth it.
Took risks
Those who know me are aware of how shy I can be. I can
travel alone, sky dive and write all I want but when it comes to taking risks
and putting my self out there, I am a shy puppy.
The things I realized that hold us back from happiness are
our own fears and inhibitions.
So I let go.
And guess what? I made new friends.
Practiced the
attitude of gratitude
The more I thank the universe for bestowing happiness the
more I seem to get it. Someone recently told me, happiness is contagious.
And I can’t agree more.
Got out often, did
the things that interest me
I ditched weeknights composed of TV shows with take out
dinners and weekends at the mall to make sure I am meeting friends or doing
things that interest me – theatre, art, music, poetry, food and of course
alcohol.
I haven’t shopped in a month and I realize, not worrying
about my dress size going up has made me so much happier.
So while #100happydays is a great experiment and a
successful campaign, it’s just not for me. I don’t want to quantify my
happiness and go back to being sad on the 101th day. I’ll choose to be happy
forever.
Simple, isn’t it?
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