Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable. Anon
Look around and you will suddenly realize that there are hundreds of people who are in a financially much worse off position than us and yet the vast majority of them seem to be happy. This despite the fact that many of them also have many other woes like aged and sick parents to look after, personal ill health, number of children who need education and care etc. If we stop to wonder how they keep smiling most of the time, we realize that they are kept too busy to waste time brooding about their problems and instead they take pleasure in the small doses of happiness that come their way. Therein lies a tale of how one must learn to live life; with fortitude and good cheer.
If we pause to ask ourselves the question as to why we seem to be plagued with a million woes, problems and fears it would dawn on us that it is because of our propensity to focus on our troubles rather than on our blessings. Sometimes, we are jealous of others so we are forever comparing; other times we crave for what we really don’t need and feel saddened that we can’t covet it but most times we are just free and brooding instead of being occupied and being productive. If one is busy doing what one has to do, there is no time for frivolous thought and self pity. The more busy we are the more mentally occupied one becomes and then we also have a goal and a lot of aspirations to meet deadlines and finish the task. Notice how the focus is more positive, more productive and very invigorating.
An empty mind, it is said is the devils workshop. Right from finding faults with anyone and everything, a person who has nothing to do will seek ways and means to be occupied. In the process he/ she will also crave for attention, seek to impose authority and lapse into spells of ‘poor me ‘syndrome. A large part of the poor me syndrome is because of the feeling of envy at the glitz and glamour that the privileged few enjoy but more often than not it is because we over value our own importance and undervalue those who by dint of hard work are enjoying the fruits of their labor. To be happy all one needs is a grateful heart. If one is blessed with a grateful heart, one can cheerfully go about ones business happy in the realization that life has been fair to us and that there is so much more of it that one can enjoy if we seek it.
When we are passionately involved in whatever we do, we actually lose track of time, forget our hunger and thirst and almost forget the world. It is the task itself that gives us the real high and it is the results that matter most to us. Do we bother about our stock market loses or an upcoming surgery when we are completely engrossed in our favorite sport or TV program? Some of us are engaged in social service activity and we are often most passionately involved in it and we forget that it is just one of the numerous responsibilities we have. On the contrary, when we have nothing to do we are ‘bored to death’ or ‘itching for some action’. We often pursue these twin objectives with negative thoughts bordering on feeling sorry for ones fate and future and we enjoy wallowing in self pity and misery. It is therefore essential that each of us have a long list of tasks lined up so that we are busy and engaged, with little or no time to spare for any negative thoughts to enter our mind and make us feel miserable. In fact when busy we will enjoy the happiness and joy that comes from achieving something every moment.
Remember: “The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be” Marcel Pagnol
Try this:
- Identify 3 people who are less privileged than you but who always seem to be happy with whatever they have. Observe how they manage to keep a cheerful countenance all the time.
- Can you also identify 3 people who more often than not seem to be morose, whining and miserable. How do you think you can help cheer them more often?
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