7 invaluable ingredients for a happy life

The ingredients of happiness are not part of a recipe magical, but are the result of common sense. What we call happiness is not a state of constant euphoria, but a harmonious and balanced attitude towards reality, which brings us inner peace and a good disposition towards life.

We all want to be happy, but we don’t always know how to define what exactly happiness is. Sometimes we believe that everything depends on obtaining something: a relationship, a material good, a job, etc. But The truth is that the ingredients of happiness are within reach from all over the world because they grow inside us.

So, Happiness is neither obtained nor lost, because it is an attitude that is built. And to do this, the important thing is to learn to see what provides it to us. These are 7 ingredients of happiness and we all have access to them.

1. Forgive ourselves: the first of the ingredients of happiness

We blame ourselves for our mistakes and failures. Also for being in a certain way, or not being in another specific way. That guilt, in the end, is of no use to us.. It only plays the role of turning us into unhappy and insecure beings.

The first ingredient of happiness is precisely that of renouncing guilt. Learn to be the best friend of ourselves. That is impossible if we do not forgive ourselves and accept that error and mistakes are a valuable asset. They constitute the main source of learning and growth.

2. Explore, experience the new

It is normal that we have the tendency to build repetitive ways of life, that prevent us from facing the new all the time. This helps us feel stable and prevents us from spending enormous emotional energy.

The problem is that If we eliminate novelty from our lives, we will soon feel dull and unmotivated. Plus, we end up stagnating. We must always leave a place to explore, to face the new. That is, without a doubt, one of the ingredients of happiness.

Leaving our “comfort zone”, without a doubt, will help us test ourselves and explore new skills that we may not have known about ourselves. As stated Lama RinchenBuddhist teacher, “If you really like doing something, stop doing it; And if you don’t like something so much, try to do it.”. And it is that Testing ourselves and going out into unknown terrain is where we can get to know ourselves better..

3. Perform physical and creative activity

Physical activity is much more than a tool to maintain good health. The impact of exercise on the mind and mood is a fact. Happiness is also a matter of neurochemicals and it is important to be aware of this. Regular exercise greatly prevents negative moods.

When we do sports our levels of dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. The increase in the amount of these neurotransmitters provides us with better concentration, improves the quality of sleep, regulates stress, anxiety, depressive states and helps reasoning.

Something similar happens with creative and recreational activities. Human beings need to give a place to expression, imagination, and creativity.. If we deprive ourselves of these dimensions, we will hardly feel happy. Who hasn’t ever wanted to learn to paint? Or learn to play an instrument? There is no longer an excuse not to dedicate ourselves to learning a new skill.

4. Simplify life

Another of the main ingredients of happiness is learning to simplify life. This It means understanding what is truly important and what is not.. Know how to dedicate time to what is worthwhile and avoid spending it in neurotic situations. A simple example illustrated by the Buddhist nun Venerable Damcho: “If I have one head, why do I want five hats?” With this example, Damcho shows us that in many aspects of our lives we tend to be too complex.

Having more clothes than necessary makes us attached to a more consumerist style. In the same way that being attached to harmful situations or emotions consumes our happiness. This is why it is so important to learn to simplify our lives. Keep only what is necessary. The story goes that Diogenes lived in a barrel and was immensely happy, why? Precisely because his only possession was that, a barrel.

The idea is not that we all live in a barrel, but that what we possess is what we need. Despite this, the important thing is not so much what we have, but our attachment relationship with it. If our happiness depends on our possessions, we will be giving away happiness to the external.. Simplifying our life is also equivalent to detaching ourselves from material things, which is not synonymous with not having, but with not depending.

Simplifying life is also learning to find effective solutions. Don’t fill ourselves with unnecessary problems. Clear the path of small obstacles, to have sufficient vitality that great challenges demand of us..

5. Learn to moderate impulses

One of the ingredients of happiness is spontaneity. However, we should not confuse it with letting ourselves be carried away by any impulse that emerges from us. Self-control requires effort, but the fruits it reaps are very sweet..

Nowadays anyone has access to meditation techniques. They are a wonderful way to learn to manage our emotions, so that they are not an invasive force. For sure, We are happier when we become more capable of acting based on reason rather than impulse..

A base meditation, such as mindfulness, will help us turn off our autopilot of automatic reactions. Our impulses come from an immediate response to a stimulus. Through mindfulness we will learn to leave distance between the stimulus and our response. In this way, we will no longer be slaves to our emotions, but we will be able to control them.

6. Discover and maintain constructive friendships

Friendship is one of the most beautiful bonds in life. And it is because it has a lot of free and spontaneous. Genuine friendships are born from affinity. They are delivered and received by their own decision. There are no commitments and if they are maintained over time it is by free and personal will.

It has been repeated thousands of times that friendship is a treasure. And it is repeated because that is how it is. Friends help us reaffirm ourselves, get to know each other, and value ourselves.. They teach us to listen and be supportive. They are our great company in countless moments. Without a doubt, they make up one of the ingredients of happiness.

7. Be good to ourselves and be grateful

Being good to ourselves is accepting ourselves, tolerating our failures, forgiving ourselves as already said. It also means taking care of ourselves, protecting ourselves, not failing to recognize our achievements and encouraging us in bad times. Constantly remind ourselves that we have the right to be happy.

Gratitude is a wonderful virtue because it ends up generating great benefits to those who experience it. Only those who value the good in their life can be grateful. And whoever knows how to value this is happy.. By being grateful, that happiness increases.

The ingredients of happiness are built. They do not fall from the sky, nor are they found by chance in some corner of life. This is a wonderful truth. It allows us to think that we are ourselves, and no one else, the owners of our happiness.

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