Staying happy begins with having a healthy definition of happiness, which incorporates a holistic view of your social, spiritual, mental and emotional life.
True happiness is not a temporary feeling or fix that comes from things or moments. It is staying content and hopeful in the midst of tragedy, loss, sorrow or heartache. Take a step back and reflect on your social, spiritual, mental and emotional state. Think about where you are lacking and jot down your thoughts before going through the five points below.
5 Key Ways to Become a Happy Person
- Go on a spiritual journey. All obsessions are failed attempts to fill a void inside the soul. This includes alcoholism, drug addiction, overspending and overindulging. Don’t try to achieve satisfaction and happiness with temporary highs. Instead, fill your spiritual void the healthy way by searching for truth, praying and finding evidence of God, grappling with your current beliefs and asking friends or family about their spiritual experiences.
- Gifts and talents. People feel joy when they are able to use their strengths, abilities and passions to make an impact and influence others. Being miserable, bored and unchallenged at work means you’re not living up to your potential and that it’s time for a career change. If you don’t know what your talents are, it may be worth it to take a career and personality test like the widely used Myers-Briggs.
- Good community. A happy person is usually surrounded by a community of supportive friends and family who are dependable and a joy to be with. Human relationships are essential to a person’s health, which is why long-term solitary confinement is considered one of the worst punishments in existence. Studies have also shown that healthy social connections lengthen life. Join groups and befriend people whose traits you want to emulate. As the saying goes, you become who you hang around.
- Gratitude. Fyodor Dostoevsky once said, “Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.” Counting your blessings and remembering what you are thankful for keeps you positive and lifts your soul. Begin a gratitude journal and read through it during low times.
- Generosity. There is an unexplainable feeling of contentment when a person gives his time, love or money liberally to another as reflected in the proverb: “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” A stingy person constantly feels anxiety because money, an object, has become the main source of security--and objects are never reliable in the long term.
Remember that long-lasting happiness cannot be achieved through outward activities or material possessions. Follow these five G's and you'll be off to a successful start which incorporates a healthy and holistic view of your life.
The copyright of the article How to Become a Happy Person in Personal Development is owned by Annie Suh. Permission to republish How to Become a Happy Person in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
