STAYING HAPPY IS YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY

There are many “happiness areas” in our life. Let’s however consider the human condition; there are things we have to do practically everyday which we take for granted. Brush our teeth, bathe, shave, make up, dress, eat, go to work etc. This is normal. Some of us actually enjoy doing some of these things. It’s no big deal. To those of us who don’t enjoy these everyday things, we thank God that we are creatures of habit.

Some of us however face some unfortunate situations in our lives – having to deal with disagreeable people e.g. people who quarrel, nag, and find fault with every thing. If, happily, we do not fall into any of those categories and we have to deal with such people we quickly realize that, mainly, happiness in our lives come from living with people who are nice to be with and that if we want people to be nice to us, it helps a whole lot if we are nice to them. It’s the age old adage, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. And it usually works.

Where we have problems achieving this bit of comfort in our lives its usually when we are stuck with people who don’t believe in the adage, who don’t work at it and don’t care about other peoples feelings. If they feel miserable, they will make others feel miserable. Misery love company. And that goes for all of us. We all need people to put up with us when we are not in the best of moods. It’s dealing with selfishness that’s the real problem.

So what’s the solution. First of all, we should try to be people that other people can be comfortable with. And if we succeed in this and others are not following our example, we have to develop skills to keep our equilibrium i.e. to put up with selfish people who make our lives miserable.  Mostly we may just have to be patient and don’t do or say anything to make matters worse.  If its your lifemate, you may just have to ride out these situations the best way you know how. You should know them better than anybody else and should know what works best.

Here’s another hint. Anytime anything upsets you, don’t let that one thing take over your life, especially if its trivial. If it’s important, you will have to give it the attention it deserves and deal with it as best as you can. If its trivial, try and remember that it is just one incident.  Don’t dwell on it, disentangle yourself and move on to the other happiness areas of your life. Remember, it’s your life, take responsibility for your happiness.  Better still, read my book “Lifelines – 101 Thoughts and Tips for the Journey of Life”. I assure you it will help. Click below to go straight to Amazon.