14 February is round the corner.
Secretly it does impact everyone. Either you are looking forward to it or simply irritated with the whole gimmick or you are forced to be apathetic to all the hearts, balloons and chocolates around you.
Spring lasts for a short time in India and does work like that for all some way or the other. We seek happiness from people and things all the time.
Emily Esfahani Smith says in her book, “What would you rather have: a happy life or a meaningful life?
You can both be happy and lead a meaningful life, of course. But most of us, consciously or not, choose the pursuit of happiness over the pursuit of meaning. “Happy holidays,” we wish each other; “Happy New Year,” we say. In surveys, most people list happiness as their top value, and self-help books and life coaches make up part of a multibillion-dollar industry. But should happiness really be the only goal that motivates us?
Research by the two of us shows that the happy life and the meaningful life differ — and that the surest path to true happiness lies in chasing not just happiness but also a meaningful life. Psychologists have started to look more closely at how seeking happiness affects people, and unearthed some unsettling trends. The pursuit of happiness, it turns out, negatively affects our well-being.”
Happiness comes and goes. It has been seen what may make you happy today; the same thing will elude you and bring you down in the next couple of months. It’s a predictable cycle. That is life.
That new job with your favorite company gets painful when your boss turns out to be an aggressor and demanding. When you plan and have a baby, which was always your dream but the post partum depression gets you after the pregnancy. The same baby annoys and puts you on your short fuse. You marry the love of your life and once the honeymoon period is over, magic goes out of the window.
Have you ever thought of trying to find meaning in your life? Let the spring of 2017 bring meaning in your life. Try these few ways to find meaning in your life.
Don’t ignore your intuition.
Stephen Klien in his book the Science of Happiness shares scientific research proves intuition as a function can’t be ignored and treated as hocus pocus.
When wanting to understand how to make choices and which direction to go, most of the times we get clouded. We ignore our gut and go with the flow of what has worked for most, even when necessarily deep down we know it is not what we really want or is good for us. We suppress our intuition.
Go with the flow what comes naturally to you? Make your choices organically for your personal and work life. You will find more meaning and sense to things in your life this way.
Being intuitive requires one to be present in the moment, being conscious of their self and its ways, self acceptance and desire to evolve. It isn’t reactionary, hasty, blaming or difficult.
Your attitude is your freedom and choice
Shit is synonymous with life and surely it cannot always be a bed of roses Yes, everything will flip and falter. However, even then when you decide what attitude you will pick through it all; That is what will give meaning to your life.
What do you do with that experience? How do you let it impact you? What kind of baggage does it create for you? Do you learn from it? Are you able to take even one step forward? Are you stuck with it?
Get out of your comfort zone and connect with others in a significant way
In a world full of technology, real human connections have become more multifarious, rare, superficial and short lived. Connect with people in honest and genuine ways. Those connections will then become meaningful and these people will act as influencers. It is so difficult to get out of a depressive zone when one is lost or down. Getting out of that place can only happen when you have support system of people where you have meaningful relationships.
Not those where connections are all about people who hang out to be seen together, feel cool, become the society la de da, for power and vested interests. No, I shall scratch your back, if you scratch mine, attitudes.
Live those individual moments
We are rushing to go get those big, bigger and biggest things in our life, as we have been told that those are symbols of happiness in our life.
In small every day, mundane moments we are not looking for any essence or significance.. That nap in the afternoon. Board game with a friend. Tea with your mom. Walk with your dad.
We don’t price them anymore. Why it is that only fancy dinner, diamond rings, big cars and palatial houses are meant to bring in happiness? Don’t let the fast-paced, simulated, consumerist and synthetic world take over your life and decide for you what is meaningful and happiness.
Be vulnerable and feel emotions
We play hide and seek with our emotions. Putting up this facade seems to be the common method to deal with worries, issues, tragedies, failure, bad relationships and difficult people.
It is time to allow yourself to be vulnerable and genuine. Yes it a tough world out there trying to get you and pull you down. But in spite of it all when you are authentic, there will always be a way forward, which will come to you ingeniously and it will show you how to rise above those people and situations, while you find meaning in your life.
Pictures photographed by Piyali Dasgupta