Three Ways to be Happy!

Happiness is a state of one’s being. The term consists of one finding in life – pleasures, satisfaction, contentment, joyfulness, delight, etc. I have often heard that happiness is conditional and can be determined by many internal and external factors impacting one’s life. Influencing factors include self-esteem, spirituality, health, family, relationships, education, finances, career, and occupation. While I believe this is true, I also strongly believe that, to a greater degree, happiness can be significantly consistent. Everyone can experience happiness substantially and throughout life regardless of existing identified or unidentified conditioning factors – it is an overall mindset.

Nevertheless, it is understandable that there will always be intervals of disappointments, misunderstandings, disagreements, conflicts, and failures, and everyone someday will have to even face some of their deepest fears. However, the most important question relating to one’s consistent fulfillment of this most desirable nature is positively answered and justified. Such question about this point of view is –Can one push happiness to the core and forefront of one’s life, making it the ultimate achievement over every daunting, doubtful, and dark moment to become a part of one’s composition, ambition, and strength? The answer in this article is a pretty simple yes– encapsulating the thought that being and maintaining a consistent and substantial amount of happiness successfully comes in three cohesive ways.

Here are the three cohesive ways to be happy:

Be happy about your past:

Why is one’s past important in making one happy? I can already hear someone saying. “Well, my past is my past, and it stays there! I don’t like thinking about it!” I can also hear another saying –“I am ashamed of my past – too many mistakes, hurts, and pains. Whenever I reflect there, I feel horrible, sad, depressed, and angry!!! There is no way I can be happy about it or gain happiness from it!”

On the contrary, I can also hear another saying. “I love my past; it is the present I hate! I wish I could re-live it and start over again because my present is a mess!!!” And yet finally another, I can hear – “Without my past, there is no me. I am who I am because of it. Reflecting back, I see how much I have been challenged, learned, and grown. My past is imperfect – many mistakes were made, hurts incurred, rejections, and disappointments, but I have become stronger, wiser, and better because of it all! Today, I am happy with the person I have become and excited about my future.” The question from all these statements is, which one of these respondents are you?

To gently expound upon the responses, I take no pleasure in saying this, but everyone who has rejected their past is not honest and real about life. The best terminology for this attitude is in denial and fictitious. Life is a challenge for everyone, and the last response is the best classification for maintaining a consistent and substantially happy life. It has been noted and is the absolute truth, that everyone’s past has much to do with who they have become today. Whatever that composition may be, it is all a reflection of past experiences and events. It is up to one to decide what they will translate that past into. One can learn from it and reach to be and do better, or one can try to bury it and live in denial – crippling one’s forward movement. One can also react in another extreme manner by rebelling against it and inviting unhappiness, sicknesses, and all sorts of worries as one’s companion. Ultimately, one needs to be awakened by these presented facts and use the experiences and events from the past as a fuel mechanism for achieving one’s best. In turn, one will undoubtedly experience considerable growth, advancement, and happiness.

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Be happy about your present:

Your present is your today; embrace it with joy and peace! Be a person that is creative and constantly moving forward, making a positive impact in this world. This is one’s opportunity to learn more about yourself, enjoy where and who you are, discover your talents and gifts, and share them with others. Take care of yourself and the people in your life. Live honestly. Plan and work for a better today and tomorrow. Be assertive, appreciative, and thankful for what you have, especially for what may be considered smaller things. Surround yourself with positive people, places, and things. Leave no room to entertain the negatives and allow honest and sincere love to flow through you to others and be receptive to others in return. Do not take for granted the good that others do for you. Remember that whatever you put out will someday be returned to you, your children, or children’s children.

Be happy about your future:

Your tomorrow depends on how well you have positively processed your yesterday, acted on your today, and planned for it. Tomorrow will also be the harvest of what seeds we have sown in the past and present. For a better tomorrow, one has to make right and peace with the past and present. These are five essential questions to answer to determine one’s happy future. What have you made peace with inside your heart and mind regarding your past? What are you currently doing today? What do you envision your future to be? What plans are in place for getting you there? Are your plans for the future being pushed into action now? If you have a positive response to these questions, congratulations, you are on your way!

Written By: Iodelle A. Chinnery