Experiencing true happiness in human existence is something that most people strive for throughout their lifetimes. While happiness on a surface level is typically quite easy for you to achieve at one time or another, the ability to live an authentically content life at a physical, mental and spiritual level often requires a great deal of time, patience and perseverance.
If you desire to personify happiness from an enlightened, evolved state of being, you must first dedicate yourself to living by several key principles designed to guide you along the way. Explore these eleven components of a happy existence, and apply them to your relationships with yourself and others.
1. Support Seeking
Enriching your life with a strong support system, including friends, family, mentors, counselors and spiritual guides, is essential for your overall happiness.
Reach out to trusted individuals for support, and be open to providing encouragement in turn, as this prevents isolation, loneliness and the weight of heavy burdens from impeding your journey to total contentment.
2. Meditation Practice
Getting and staying in tune with yourself through meditation helps to open the pathway to a consistently peaceful and happy state of mind.
Practice meditating daily in a calm and tranquil environment, allowing all thoughts to freely pass through your mind. Observing and accepting your thoughts without judgment enables you to reach an enlightened place.
3. Mind And Body Nourishment
Physical and mental ailments serve as a major obstacle to your happiness and well-being. Protect your body and mind from various maladies through regular exercise, a diet filled with clean foods, herbal supplements, yoga practice and conversations with a valued guide.
Increase your likelihood of a joyful life by avoiding behaviors that are harmful and self-destructive.
4. Selflessness Toward Others
Charity, compassion and unconditional acceptance toward others are qualities that exemplify a great number of happy individuals.
A giving, loving and selfless spirit not only strengthens your self-worth, but also inspires people with whom you interact to find happiness within themselves. Bestow good deeds and thoughtful actions with no expectation of gifts or rewards in return.
5. Appreciation And Gratitude
In order to be happy with your life, you need to acknowledge, appreciate and be thankful for the special circumstances that enable your very existence.
Your experiences as a breathing, thinking and feeling person are to be treasured, because while we are all human, we are all unique individuals. Express gratitude and watch as happiness blossoms.
6. Acceptance Of Yourself
When you spend too much time focusing on what you perceive to be your flaws, you can all too easily fall victim to a self-loathing existence lacking in true happiness. Accept yourself for all of the traits that define you, and learn to be at peace with the opportunities that you are given in this life.
7. Positive Interactions Within Your World
Infusing positive energy into all that you do is highly beneficial for the achievement of a happy state of mind. Rather than approaching people and situations with dread, apathy, scorn or other negative attitudes, be optimistic in regard to your experiences as a person within the world at large.
Embrace pleasurable and challenging interactions equally.
8. Setting And Achieving Ambitions
A life characterized by a lack of goals or ambition is one that very often fails to result in authentic happiness with one’s self. Enrich and fulfill your life by periodically developing new benchmarks to reach, then trying your best to accomplish that which you have set out to attain.
Productivity encourages satisfaction and contentment.
9. Constant Mindfulness
The life experience offered to you in each present moment should not be ignored if you deeply desire happiness at its richest level.
Stay mindful of your relationship to your surroundings at any given moment, and refrain from fixating on past moments that can never be re-lived or future desires that may never come to pass.
10. Rejection Of Judgment And External Validation
If you place too great an importance on the opinions, judgments and validation of those who are on the periphery of your existence, your potential for happiness may unduly suffer.
Welcome constructive advice from positive individuals who have your well-being in mind, but learn to tune out external influences that are damaging to your psyche.
11. Exemplifying Love
Love and happiness co-exist beautifully with one another in the most enlightened of people. Let love be a guiding principle in your life whenever possible, and aim to exemplify all that is good and right in humanity.
