Don’t take happiness for granted… but what is happiness? 

It’s different for everyone; some people are happy being unhappy, others are happy to just sit on the beach overlooking the ocean. 

*Since the 1960s, happiness research has been conducted in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including gerontology, social psychology, clinical and medical research and happiness economics.

During the past two decades, however, the field of happiness studies has expanded drastically in terms of scientific publications, and has produced many different views on causes of happiness, and on factors that correlate with happiness, but no validated method has been found to substantially improve long-term happiness in a meaningful way for most people.

Sonja Lyubomirsky concludes in her book “The How of Happiness” that 50 percent of a given human’s happiness level is genetically determined (based on twin studies), 10 percent is affected by life circumstances and situation and a remaining 40 percent of happiness is subject to self-control.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness#Research_results

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony – Mahatma Gandhi

So what really is Happiness? Is it a mental or emotional state of well-being?  Life can change overnight and not always for the better, so our mental and emotional state will determine how we cope with change.

Over the last decade, I have gone through periods of being happy, unhappy, depressed and downright angry at life. Now I am confident, content and happy with my life.  I still have days when I’m not as positive or happy but that’s normal. 

The one thing I always advise people is to improve and rebuild their self-confidence, as I believe this is one of the keys to happiness and our ability to cope with adversity and change.

When you have self-confidence you also develop a strong self-belief in yourself and this helps you to bounce back from tragedy and adversity. You are better equipped to problem solve the issues or put actions, goals into place, remain optimistic and stay calm. 

Does this mean that a person with good self-confidence is happier than someone who lacks self-confidence? Maybe…  Maybe not… 

All I know from experience is that self-confidence and self-belief are important to maintaining a good mental and emotional state of well-being.

Whatever your perception is, the one thing that we all should do is never take happiness for granted.