Happiness Comes from Movement
We all want the day to come where we can close our eyes, take a deep breath, and feel the happiness run through our veins. Who doesn’t like feeling good and oozing happiness from their pores?
The problem is that happiness isn’t achieved overnight, nor does it miraculously burst into our lives. Being happy is more than just waiting and conforming. It involves deciding, acting, and building, with personal values and motivation as your foundation. Happiness is an internal state of being. That’s the key.
“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
The trap of inaction
It’s common to think that you’re unhappy because happiness just hasn’t come into your life, and to ask yourself when you will be happy. But the thing is, happiness does not depend on time, external conditions, or luck. It depends on you, and what you do to achieve it.
According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology and researcher of happiness, 50% of our capacity to be happy is influenced by genetics, 10% by external factors, and 40% by what we think and do. Therefore, the weight of our thoughts and actions is 4 times greater than the things we can’t control. So there’s no excuse to not work towards your own happiness.
If you’re not happy with the way your life is now, you probably won’t be in the future, either, unless you do something to change it. Complaining is not the remedy for unhappiness, or the bridge towards well-being. It’s just a trap that chains you to apathy and distress.
Inactivity is tempting, and we’re accustomed to it, but it does no good for us. There’s no excuse; if you want to be happy, then take action. Do you really think sitting there and doing nothing will make you happy someday? If doing the same thing you’ve always done has achieved no different results, why keep it up?
What does happiness mean to you?
As we’ve seen, in order to be happy, one important factor you can control is your own thoughts. The biggest determining factor in whether you’ll be happy or not is your own concept of happiness.
What does happiness mean to you, to him, to her, to me? It’s a pretty common question, but people don’t often ask it seriously. But if you never ask yourself, then how will you ever know if you’re happy? Even if you think your answer is wrong, you have to at least ask the question.
In doing so, there are many related ideas to keep in mind. For example, happiness is not the feeling you get when you buy a new car or a new house. It has little to nothing to do with material things beyond having your basic needs covered. The sensation material things provide, while pleasant, is still superficial. It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality.
Happiness is not a smile, although it helps to have one. It’s not living without worry, but the ability to face reality and create an environment that makes you feel good without causing harm or using other people as instruments.
True happiness is a state of being.
If you want to be happy, be decisive
It’s not enough to just want to be happy if you don’t do anything about it. This is the most important part, because it all depends on your thoughts, your actions, your feelings, your decisions, your willpower, your movement.
You choose whether to be the protagonist of your own life or a spectator watching from the sidelines. The former will bring you satisfaction, while the latter will make you feel like a victim. It depends completely on you. All of your decisions will influence the path you take.
Another thing to remember is that happiness requires bravery to face your fears and shelter you from uncertainty. Lastly, you won’t be happy if you don’t think you deserve it, so it’s very important that you believe in yourself. Because happiness is an attitude, a state of being that is cultivated from within through movement.