Find Happiness: By Mediation Or Laughing Aloud?

Posted by Robbie on December 15th, 2009

Find happiness - that is what everyone is doing every day. For most of us the definition of happiness is being able to experience a number of positive emotions like joy, affection, contentment, hope, and gratitude.

Based on a Buddhist teaching, happiness is a state of mind. The true source of happiness is in the mind, not in external circumstances. So to find happiness, one has to understand how the mind works and then only one can bring our mind under control to achieve happiness.

To their teaching, what we are experiencing is actually a contaminated happiness, or pleasurable feelings and not true happiness. We are actually “changing suffering”. It is just a temporary thing.

What they mean is what we experience the so-called happiness is actually pleasure due to the relief of our previous pain. For instance, the pleasure we derive from eating is really just a temporary reduction of our hunger. They believe you can find happiness by meditation.

Then there are people who defined happiness as a feeling of “subjective well-being”, meaning that only we can decide if we are happy or not. Interestingly, too happy is also consider as bad thing. We still need some negative emotions. For instance we all need occasional guilt, temporary worry, anger and sadness to help us know what we need to change to improve our lives.

According to Dr. Diener’s book, “Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth”, there is another important aspect of happiness called life satisfaction. Life satisfaction means doing well in areas that are important to us like relationships, health, work, leisure, spirituality and income.

In his research to find happiness, Dr Ed Diener says there is another factor in happiness that is called “flourishing”. This is the assessment that our lives have meaning and purpose.

Do you know you can feel happier right this minute, regardless of your age or temperament? From an article in Reader’s Digest, psychologist Will Fleeson, PhD, of Wake Forest University, claimed that he has found a surefire way to boost the spirit. Just do something energetic, adventurous, assertive or bold. It can be as simple as singing or dancing to the radio, or laughing out aloud.

But not everyone accept this kind of forced power of positive thinking. Author of “Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching”, Bowdoin College psychologist Barbara Held, PhD, said that not everyone can still strike a pose of sunny optimism in the face of life’s mishaps, and in fact it can do harm.

So, how do you find happiness in your own way?

Read my collection of happiness quotes or happy quotes to cheer you up.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/motivational-articles/find-happiness-by-mediation-or-laughing-aloud-1573776.html