What Makes You Happy?

What makes you happy?

What makes you happy? I often ponder that when watching people at malls or airports. Have you ever wondered what their smiles are about? Well, I sure have. I will see couples holding hands smiling at each other. I will see new mothers hold their newborn baby’s and they stare into the baby’s eyes. The little boy who craves attention from his dad, or the daughter saying “look at me daddy”. The wife who looks into her husbands eyes and smiles. What brings happiness to you?

What steals you of your joy and happiness? Do you dwell on past mistakes, and cannot forgive yourself? Do you harbor bitterness and cannot get past the pain someone caused you? Do you look into the past and cannot pull out of it?

My question to you is, how bad do you want the joy back into your life? Do you want to laugh again, smile at the simple things in life?

When I go out and eat, I will often watch couples sit at their table, and see if they communicate at all. Most don’t and just stare at anything but their spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. Next time you go out, watch and see. I went to Beau Jo’s pizza in Idaho Springs a few weeks ago after an ATV ride. I watched the couples around me, and saw one particular couple, mid-50’s say absolutely nothing to each other the hour that I was there! He stared at the walls, ceilings, she looked at the pictures on the wall and watched people walk by. Both never smiled and he often frowned. Is this you when you go out with your significant other? How do people who see you? Do they see someone that is happy and enjoy being with someone they love, or are you sad and in a bad mood?

Being happy is something that you have control over, either you allow people to steal your joy, or keep it close to you. There is good and bad happiness, some people find happiness in money, drugs, sex, while others enjoy helping people, teachers, coaches, pastors just to name a few!

While there’s more to happiness than just the absence of stress, there are relationships between stress-relieving activities and happiness. Dr. Michael Frisch, a Baylor University professor and pioneer in the increasingly popular field of positive psychology, has found 16 different areas of life that contribute to a person’s happiness, and measuring satisfaction in these areas can help measure a person’s overall level of happiness and life satisfaction. Interestingly, many of the things that bring happiness are also things that relieve stress, such as exercise, expressing creativity, maintaining supportive friendships, keeping an organized home, and enjoying your work.
When you’re overwhelmed with stress, often just relieving the imminent pressures is foremost on your mind; however, following a stress relief program that also incorporates activities known to increase overall happiness can give you short-term stress relief, and the lasting gains of a happy life. And when you incorporate into your life a general state of happiness, and make habit the lifestyle features that promote it, you’ll be better able to weather future stress in your life.

The following is a list of the 16 different features that promote happiness, while relieving stress at the same time!

Health
Self-Esteem
Goals, Values and Spiritual Life
Money
Work
Play
Learning
Creativity
Helping
Love
Friends
Children
Relatives
Home
Neighborhood
Community
Next week we will cover, 5 Changes You Can Make for Increased Happiness and Life Satisfaction and turn your life around!