Happiness- The Art of Living Way
As I walked down the path of Life I was tagged as too emotional by some people. Some bosses even put down this as remarks in my ACR and remarked “she gets easily attached and affected by people and circumstances around her” and a few more tags on the same lines. My own calmness and serenity would get affected by occurrences around me at work as well as home quite a few times affecting my functioning, decisions and well- being. Little did I realise that this was a shortcoming in my personality and I needed to grow emotionally as well as spiritually to realise my own potential as a human being. Being sensitive to the extent of causing harm oneself is a major Weakness and not a Strength.
I would often come across the Art of Living (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) community and courses in the past and heard about Isha Foundation (Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev) as well as Landmark Forum. I would meet people who had undergone various stages of courses to grow and attain Bliss ,an upward stage of Happiness. My own pursuit began when my emotional requirements not being realised became so disturbing that it started endangering a healthy physical as well as mental existence. I felt a need for Detachment to carry on with my Life and started exploring means to facilitate this. Little did I realise till then that Me Myself and My own existence was enough to keep myself HAPPY, feel complete and exist without much of external stimuli.
In August 2016 I enrolled and did the Art of Living Happiness Program and my journey towards a better Calmer and Happier Life started. I felt the beginning of change in myself and it suddenly dawned on me that I was quite ignorant and completely uneducated as far as this vital part of Life was concerned. In spite of being a post graduate professional I was illiterate considering the science of Happy existence. So here I am sharing the little knowledge basics which have helped change my out look towards Life.
FIVE KNOWLEDGE POINTS TO LIVE HAPPILY
- Opposites are complimentary to each other. Disturbance is followed by Peace. Night by Day. Only if we know one will we value other. Everything comes and goes. No state is permanent. Change is inevitable and constant. Incidents which appear to be problems today will change and not exist tomorrow.
- Do not seek the intention behind the other person’s mistake. Forgive the other person like we forgive ourselves. Do not procrastinate about other’s mistakes. Move On.
- Do not be a football to other people’s opinion. Do not react to people and situations. Use your own brain and judgement. Do not allow external sources to break and disturb your peace and calm. Your behaviour should be based on your own judgement and thinking. Respond to people and situations and not REACT.
- Accept people and situations as they are. Do not try to change them it will only disturb us. All situations and people need to be actively and passively accepted. Things, people and situations which cannot be changed need to be accepted as facts and we should let go and move on in life instead of getting stuck there.
- Live in the PRESENT. Reliving or thinking about the past gives birth to Anger, Frustration, Depression and Irritability. Thinking about the Future gives rise to Insecurity, Fear and Anxiety. We need to just plan and work on that course of achievement in a systematic manner without worrying about the outcome.
Internalizing these fundamental basics taught in every AOL Happiness course help us to maintain a calm state of mind and stay Happy. It helps in eliminating unnecessary stress. Stress is not only upsetting on a psychological level but also triggers biological changes in our hormones and blood pressure hence affecting our health and physical wellbeing. It tends to affect our quality of Sleep at times pushing our bodies into chronic tired state.
We need to understand one fundamental rule of Human Life. All suffering is caused by our mind. Our thoughts are the cause of our suffering in turn leading to unhappiness and loss of calm. All our senses are outward bound and provide external stimuli. It is how we react to these stimuli which decides our level of disturbance. If we control our mind and our thoughts from turning in the negative direction and respond to situations and people in well thought out manner instead of reacting on impulsiveness most of the suffering can be eliminated. Pain is mandatory due to physiological reasons but Suffering is an option totally controllable.
All Human beings should be able to learn about maturity and spiritual growth to improve the quality of Life and this is achievable with very little effort. We need to awaken our awareness, cut out negative emotions like Anger, fear, jealousy ,anxiety ,criticism ,complaining and build on our positive values of faith, love, forgiveness, helping and increasing knowledge.
