Things Happier People Do!

Apparently, following are the common things which happier people do on a consistent basis.

1. Express gratitude
2. Cultivate optimism
3. Avoid over-thinking and social comparison
4. Practice act of kindness
5. Nurture social relationship
6. Develop strategies for coping
7. Learn to forgive
8. Increase flow experiences
9. Savor life's joy
10. Commit to their goals
11. Practice spirituality
12. Take care of their body

A Life Without Challenges!

"A life without challenge, a life without hardship, a life without purpose, seems pale and pointless. With challenge come perseverance and gumption. With hardship come resilience and resolve. With purpose come strength and understanding." - Terry Fallis, The High Road 

Has any one in this whole wide world be spared of difficulties or challenges during his/her life time? At least I havent seen any one who has been. But still we see people with different emotions all around us.  Some who are always laughing, smiling, enjoying their moments of life. At the same time there are some who are equally opposite! crying over small things, always brooding and complaining. Having seen such contradictions I always felt that life is really partial.  Some are having happiness in abundance and for some its a distant dream.  But when I closely looked at few of such cases I realised its not that life is partial but its our view which surely is.  We see only the smile on the face of people and deduce that there lives are free from worries but we do not try to understand the way in which they handle their challenges and problems and I guess that's where the difference lies.  A person minus problem is not possible but a person minus negativity is definitely possible and that makes all the difference.

Imagine a life with out a problem.  Its like going to school but not learning a lesson, eating food with out actually cooking (well actually its possible e.g. eating in a hotel but eventually someone will need to cook so that you can eat!).  It is said that the life is a big tutor and the challenges are lessons which we need to learn. These lessons learnt through out our journey are nothing but the opportunities.  Opportunities to grow, to learn and to be wise.  Each lesson unless learnt will keep repeating its self so that we can learn and master it.  The people whom we often see happy are the bunch who acknowledge their problems, face them and eventually learn from these problems. Life will always present us with difficulties but that will become less difficult when we start acknowledging that fact and instead of running away from it, start facing them. When we stop running from the challenges, they become less challenging.

If you have seen the caption of the advertisement for 'chrome browser' it says 'web is what we make of it!'  I guess the same can be said for our lives and its challenges.  'Life is indeed what we make of it!' Isn't it?

Uncertainty

There are certain incidents in life which really make you feel that everything in life is so temporary. Heard about some one loosing his job. Till yesterday he was a king of that place and today he has been shown the door!!! This really makes me wonder is their anything in life which is certain?? Then why do people live their lives thinking that their is no end to it? I guess the person whom I am referring would have understood the temporary nature of the things in life.

I guess we should ask what is uncertainty to a person who just met up with a fatal accident, to a soldier who just was shot down by a bullet, to a guy who lost his fortune in a gamble, to a person who just has been shown the door on a job....And then we should think that if the life is so uncertain then why do we keep clinging to our egos and our differences? why cant we forgive and forget? why can't we settle our differences? Guess if we can realize and answer these questions then the world would be a real peaceful place...

Snooze......

This word is known to most of us. And if we think for a second we would realise how important thing this is. Imagine the sweet sleep we normally have between two snoozes. It is such a nice thing that we can actually postpone the current event for few minutes without much disturbance. It is like holding the precious time in our hand with out letting it slip by..

If we stretch our imagination further and just think what if we can apply this principle to all the other things in life!!! Just think how nice it would be to remain child for just a little while longer. How beautiful it would be to extend the first date for a little bit longer. How joyful it would have been to play with our kids once again before they grow up and get lost in this busy world. The joy that we would have got would be much sweeter than the morning sleep between two snoozes. Isn't it??

But life does not have a snooze button. Now thats why I feel what the stalwarts say holds such a truth of life. We need to cherish each and every moment of our lives with out much worrying about future and with out regretting our past as today is a gift that is why it is called 'present'...