How Do You Know When You’re Happy?

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By Kac Young Ph.D, ND, DCH

happyI thought this was the most ridiculous question I’d ever heard. And then it got me thinking. Of course I know when I’m happy….but do I really see it and feel it? A question like that always sends me off to research the issue. Sometime we think we’re happy because we’re on vacation, or we’re following a plan that is supposed to be happy-making.

I found many opinions about happiness and I assimilated about 30 articles into these seven points.

You’ll know you’re happy when:

1) You have a clear sense of who you are, what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

2) You have plenty of energy and enthusiasm for life.

3) You see your future as bright and optimistic.

4) You are enjoying the present.

5) You focus on what you are best at and utilize your talents.

6) You enjoy spending time with others and you know they enjoy spending time with you.

7) You’re okay with the fact that not everything is perfect and life is a work in progress.

If you feel that you are undirected and don’t know what you want, seek a counselor, mentor or an advisor who can help you address your direction.

If you feel lethargic and unmotivated, get yourself moving; join a gym, take walks, get your body active.

If you are depressed seek professional or spiritual help for your despondency.

If you aren’t enjoying life, ask yourself the tough questions, why not? Then start making the necessary changes to increase your enjoyment.

Make a list of your talents and how you are using them. If you spot any roadblocks, remove them and get on with bringing your gifts to the world.

If you spend more time on social networks than out with others, you need to put down those electronics and have some face time with your friends. You can read more about it in The Atlantic Monthly article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/

The last marker may be the single most important step in the list. If you’re okay knowing that life isn’t necessarily perfect, that it has ups and down, currents and tides, that it is chaotic and unpredictable and if you can somehow make yourself okay with that constant ebb and flow of change, and you can laugh about it, then you’re happy.

After all, we laugh at the comedy in life, the oddities in nature and the foibles of ourselves and others. If your favorite sitcom or comedy movie had perfect situations and events that always worked out right, would you have found any enjoyment in that? Hardly. We laugh at the ironies, the faux pas and the slips on the banana peels.

If you want to have all seven happiness points in your life, list each one of them and start clarifying how you can expand each area. Work on only one at a time until you get it where you feel it is complete, then move on to the next area. In no time at all, you’ll realize that you are, in fact, happy.

– Kac Young , a former television director and producer, has earned a Ph.D. in Natural Health and is a Doctor of both Clinical Hypnotherapy and Naturopathy. She is the author of 10 books. The Quick Guide to Bach Flower Remedies is her latest book about self- healing that provides a short cut to natural remedies we can use to improve our life and well being.