Five Reasons for Being Happy

May 21, 2008
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

SUCCESS
Success is a great reason for being happy. Albert Schweitzer wisely said: "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." What do you think success is? You might think it is a great paying job, a large house, or driving the latest car. Those things may help you look successful, but unless you're happy you won't feel like you're complete or successful. Don't allow the outer world to define your success. Only you know what is important to you. Doing what you love may not make you as much money as some other type of work, but it will make you more successful than just making money.

HEALTH
Health is another good reason for being happy. This not only includes your physical health, but your mental health and wellbeing as well. The health benefits derived from being happy are tremendous and there are many additional benefits you will receive from being happy. Research has found that you can live ten years longer! Not a bad benefit from being happy! You can also reduce anger, experience less stress and confusion, while having the capacity to focus and concentrate on what you are doing.

FRIENDSHIP
Friendship is another great benefit of happiness. Start by becoming friends with yourself first. Being happy is the very best way to accomplish that task. Foster C. McClellan said, "Create the kind of self you will be happy to live with all your life." Being happy leads to enhanced relationships, and gives you the ability to enjoy your life, while enriching the lives of others with your happiness. As you learn to use happiness to make a positive difference in your life, you will want to start using it to spread happiness to others, increasing your probability of meeting more friends. The important element is that you will be attracting more friends that you have a lot in common with.

POWER
Believe it or not, power is a benefit of being happy. The reason for this is that happiness is authentic power. When you are being happy, you do not give your power away to others. You learn to exercise control within yourself, no matter what the situation is. You will think in terms of the choices available to you at the time. The world has tried to use power over others, rather than developing inner power. Inner power requires self-discipline and practice. By being happy we use better patience and self-control. We are better able to access greater intelligence and utilize wisdom. As a result of controlling ourselves we experience emotional competence.

Authentic power means never volunteering to make yourself a victim. It means that you do not try to control other people. It means that you do not allow yourself to be forced into acting the way others think you should act. Authentic power allows you to feel like you can change the world because you are taking control of yourself. It allows you to deal with difficult people and anger when it arises. It gives you the ability to cope with fear and anxiety. You will be able to forgive people and stop labeling them. Free yourself from self-doubt and despair, stop feeling guilty, and let go of the past so you don't react to this moment based on your past conditioning. It means you become proactive, to allow your wisdom and common sense to make the change you want to see occur in the next moment.

Spirituality is a big benefit to being happy. Spirituality is creating inner peace. I have always said that fear is the opposite of happiness. John Milton is known for these beautiful words: "The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell and a Hell of Heaven." As you become happy, you find that you are less fearful and less motivated by the negative. You are more attracted to the positive. Acceptance is a large part of spiritual teaching. Dealing with change is very difficult for people. When you don't accept something that has already happened, you create resistance to it. The resistance you are creating will cause you to suffer. The change has already happened and if there is nothing you can do about it, but you continue to resist it, you will make yourself unhappy.

Another aspect of spirituality is being thankful about something most of the time. What are you grateful for now? Meister Eckhart spoke these words of wisdom: "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."

Being in the present moment is essential to happiness. Awareness is a critical ingredient of happiness. Only a conscious person can be happy. Only a conscious happy person can use the power of making a choice for his/her own good. Ego is the enemy of happiness, and over thinking can create unhappiness. Learn not to take things personally. Most of our thinking is about obsessing over things we have no control over. Happiness is a way to inner peace and a doorway for peace in the world.

Lionel Ketchian is the founder of the Happiness Club and can be reached at PrintLRK@aol.com. The website is www.HappinessClub.com.