What is true happiness? True Happiness might be the most valuable and sought-after emotion in everyone’s life. we seek happiness from hard work for results, we seek happiness from relationships, friends, family, etc; While all of us might seek happiness in various forms, many of us may not understand what is true happiness.
“I choose happiness over everything”
a line from Jhene Aiko’s song “happiness over everything”
What Is Happiness?
In order to know what is “true happiness”, we must first define happiness is.
It might interest you to know that there is a whole dedication of psychology to the concept of Happiness.
“Eudaimonia” is a Greek word that translates to state and condition of “good spirit” which is commonly translated as “happiness” or “welfare” wikipedia.com
According to Wikipedia.com, Daniel Kahneman defines happiness as “what I experience here and now”.
In contrast, Ruuh Veenhover defines happiness as “overall appreciation of one’s life as a whole”, i.e. appraisal of life satisfaction such as quality of life.
what is true happiness?
The idea of true happiness isn’t a one-way thing. It has different interpretations for different people. So then, what is true happiness?
True happiness can be an in-the-moment experience of joy, pleasure, love, and other pleasing emotions. It’s also the feeling of appreciating one’s life as a whole or the satisfaction derived from being content with the quality of life, etc.
Happiness can be an instantaneous emotion or an overall appreciation of life.
True happiness is a state or feeling of greater positive emotions, felt at a place in time or in an instant, or felt as one judges the state of his life to be satisfactory and meaningful.
With these being said, the feeling or state of ‘true happiness’ can only be defined by the person feeling said emotions that describe “true happiness”.
Is it possible to find true happiness?
As a matter of fact, you can find true happiness. There are two concepts id like to discuss in this article on what is true happiness. These include;
Emotions:
For you to experience true happiness, you specifically need to be feeling a significant level of positive emotions. This is not to say that true happiness extinguishes other emotions.
It just means that: at that moment, the prevailing emotion is a positive emotion. Like joy, pleasure, gratitude, peace, love, etc.
In the midst of a bad day, you can feel happy even for a moment. I.e, when you experience something that triggers a positive emotion in you. E.g a memory, a phone call, a visit, a person, or an act of kindness from someone to you or vice versa, etc.
Given this, the idea that “rich people are always happy” is not true because having money can not always give you positive emotions like love, peace, etc. Rich people have moments of really low levels of positivity and experience extremely high levels of negative emotions like grief, betrayal, sadness, abandoned, misunderstood, cheating, etc.
People who aren’t rich aren’t always sad either. Generally, They may not live in luxury and lavishness, but they have moments where they experience higher levels of positive emotions.
Contentment:
Another perspective used to define happiness is your level of satisfaction with the state of your life. Happiness is purely a personal thing. If you try to extend things that make you happy to your community or state, you might find absolutely nothing to give you satisfaction.
Oftentimes, the conditions which can give “true happiness” are the ones from one’s personal life and immediate environment.
In this sense that people can say that “Money can buy happiness”.
Money can buy a better quality of life, i.e You look around and assess your life, and you feel content with what you have so far.
You can buy a car, or a house, afford food and other necessities for living such as medical bills, and education bills, you are okay. If you’re even extra rich, you fancy, luxury cars, mansions of different aesthetics, vacation in dream places, etc. Creating an effective budget for any pocket size.
It’s easy to say: rich people shouldn’t complain about being unhappy, they’re rich. Next time try to remember that true happiness isn’t a one-way thing.
Sometimes, you may have higher levels of positive emotions without having an all-around sense of contentment with the quality of your life. Sometimes, it’s the other way, a few times, it can be both.
For instance, Ms. Kylie Jenner must have felt high levels of positive emotions and contentment with the quality of her life when she looks at her two wonderful children which she adores very much. She has her two loves, can afford to take care of them and can afford comfort and luxury.
This, however, doesn’t mean she will always feel this way. Occasionally, she might have moments of lowered positive feelings and higher negative feelings. In those moments it’s kind of impossible to just focus only on the contentment part like…” oh my! I’m so hurt right now but that’s okay I have a private jet and a big house”.
How to find true happiness
Get to know yourself:
Particularly, when you spend time to know yourself, you define and identify your person. Use this information to do things that are beneficial to you.
The information about yourself can consciously and maybe unconsciously guide your actions toward achieving true happiness.
Remember, true happiness varies to your age, pockets, social status, and location. Know where you stand. What makes a billionaire 41-year-old mother of 4 is definitely not on your 20-year-old non-billionaire bingo card of things that could make you happy. You can change your life
Practice self-love can bring true happiness :
Spend time loving yourself.
Self-love teaches you the qualities of love, patience, kindness, humility, tolerance, contentment, etc.
You can’t know what is true happiness if you have no understanding of these simple yet elusive traits. And if you don’t have them, you might unfortunately never find “true happiness”.
Practice doing things that are positively beneficial to you. Say good words to yourself. Never intentionally sabotage yourself. Be kind to yourself, spend a good time with yourself, etc. In doing so, you’re easier on yourself in a world that’s already challenging enough.
Practice gratitude:
“count your blessings, name them one by one”…
a line from the Christian hymn “count your blessings”
Without a doubt, it is always a good idea to sit back and actually recollect our wins, blessings, successes, etc.
This puts us in the happiness is contentment with life box. By practicing gratitude for all our wins, we are creating room for more wins, blessings, accomplishments, etc. The world is competitive because we are ambitious.
Sometimes, our life doesn’t turn out as planned. But as far as you have life, the most valuable gift of all, be grateful for this. As long as you are living, you can still try again.
Enjoy the company of loving people
Spend time with people who make you happy. Find yourself in good company. They can be friends, spouses, family, etc. spend quality time with loved ones who make you experience positive emotions.
Also, share your emotions with people who indeed have genuine intentions. Sometimes, emotions can be overwhelming and it really helps to have someone to talk to.
As much as friendships can be so cruel, they can also be beautiful. Every while, we need meaningful company from meaningful people. No person is perfect, no friendships are perfect, and no relations or family is perfect. We are all good and bad. You can define how much good or bad you’re willing to take or give.
Allow yourself to experience positive emotions
To know what is true happiness, you must first know your true self. Do not purposefully hinder yourself from experiencing positive emotions like love, satisfaction, pleasure, etc.
Do good things without expecting rewards. Acts of kindness to others are acts of kindness to oneself.
Love your family, significant others, children, etc. Overall, Let love into your heart and don’t actively block it by nurturing negative emotions such as unforgiveness, hatred, etc. It’s never good for your physical and mental well-being.
Actively create and reminisce good memories. Consciously fill your mind with good memories. Think of wholesome things, kind and happy things. Replace hateful thoughts with good thoughts only.
Set goals and relish the feeling of accomplishment:
Set goals that develop you mentally, physically, and spiritually.
They don’t even have to be long-term goals all the time. They can be short-term goals like cleaning up your room. It can be a medium-term goal like learning a skill, or a long-term goal like starting a business, earning a degree, etc.
Allow yourself to accomplish goals, and enjoy the positive feelings and satisfaction that accomplices achievements. Even if they fail, that’s life. It comes with failures and successes in no particular ratio.
Practice mindful living:
To understand what is true happiness, be conscious of yourself. Be active in your life and society. Consciously do your part in the community. Be mindful of your association, be mindful of your surroundings, habits, etc.
Keep yourself engaged:
An idle mind makes room for polluted thoughts. Keep yourself busy and engaged with productive and enjoyable things. keep yourself engaged with resting when tired.
Hence keep yourself knowledgeable with beneficial information. Learn skills, get Knowledge, and keep yourself occupied with good things.
in order to find true happiness, Let go of unrealistic expectations
What is true happiness without letting go of unrealistic things? Unrealistic expectations are thieves of joy. (From life, from people, relationships, etc.)
Be responsible for what you can. Don’t expect perfection from life and other people, even if you love them to bits. They’re human too and we all make mistakes. Never set yourself up for disappointments and be willing to forgive and make compromises.