How do we find an ounce of happiness when going through the difficulties associated with illness, caring for others, struggling to get by or recovering from loss?
Finding Happiness
Your happiness is all relative to you and your situation. The goal is to find happiness, or moments of happiness no matter what your circumstances are. The benefits are profound when this is achieved, but most of us need some guidance and direction.
This may seem like an impossible task at times. However no matter how bad things are, happiness can rise up like a snow-flower blossoming in the depths of Winter.
The magnifying- glass of gratitude
Focussing on moments of happiness, and then feeling gratitude for those moments, even simply just acknowledging them, brings them from being a fleeting ray of sunlight in your darkness, to a stronger and more uplifting energy that can help you weather the difficulties of every day.
Unfortuantely most of us don’t notice because we are so consumed with ‘the problem’ or ‘the list of things to do.’ So the act of stopping for that important moment, to truly notice a happy time and feel grateful for it, almost invariably slips away like butter melts in a hot pan. Changed from beautiful buttery yellow to invisible slick, sliding around in the pan in the blink of an eye.
Dopamine please, double shot
Appreciation of that beautiful buttery yellow moment of happiness does something to your brain. Dopamine is produced when you are happy, and is produced in ever more noticeable quantities the more often you laugh, dance with joyful abandon, sing because you want to or do something silly that puts a smile on your face. The older we get, the less dopamine receptors are available in the brain, which perhaps explains why we seem to become more serious about everything. But purposefully engaging in activities and thoughts which give us joy counteracts this lack, allowing happiness to actually grow and be experienced more readily.
Even something as simple as writing your small moments of happiness in a journal regularly, increases your capacity to feel happy. Joy perpetuates further joy. Our bodies are wired to help us. Just the act of smiling releases feel-good neuro-transmitters. Dopamine, endorphins and seratonin are released every time you engage in acts of happiness and joy. Writing down and reliving a special moment and smiling at the memory is a natural anti-depressant.
Laughter, the best medicine
Laughter decreases the stress hormone cortisol while causing an increase in blood supply to the areas of the brain which appreciate the funny things in life. In contrast, low levels of the feel-good neuro-transmitters are associated with hositility, anxiety and depression. These conditions are helped every time happiness and laughter are introduced into your day. Socialising, talking and laughing inevitably make you feel better. That’s why staying at home on your own and feeling miserable is improved immeasurably by making the effort to go out, go to a club or watch a funny movie with a good friend.
Social interaction is a must
Ask any lady who goes to a quilting class, CWA, or anyone who plays golf, belongs to a reading group, or volunteers with others, ask them how they feel on the day of their activity. They all talked and smiled and usually laughed……a lot.
General happiness is increased, interest in life is maintained. Physical health is improved and ability to be engaged in life beyond a career is supported by activities that promote happiness.
John Cleese said: ‘I’m struck by how laughter connects you with people. It’s impossible to maintain any kind of distance, any sense of social heirarchy when you are just howling with laughter…’
Responsibilities and difficulties are always going to be there, but attaching just as much importance to having time out, to allow yourself to have some fun and smile is really the difference between living and trudging on.
It’s ok to laugh, it’s even good to laugh no matter how bad anything is in your life. Take that joyful moment and hug it to yourself, it will help see you through. Don’t feel guilty because someone close to you is in terrible pain. You need time out to keep on going, and from that strength reach out to them, and do whatever you can to make them smile too. Endorphins are natural pain-killers. And if you have lost someone dear, when you laugh again, it is not a betrayal of your grief. It is your soul wanting to heal itself.
Happiness is a golden key, nurture every brief short-lived moment. Soak deep in the warm bubbles of a happy day, and try your best to avoid prolonged engagement in self-pity, negativity and pessimism. For every long dark night, there is a beautiful sunny day, the yin and the yang of all life.
If you would like to read more about this, I found an interesting website called:
www.laughteronlineuniversity.com
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, thank you for sharing in my blog-writing for Yellow Door Care.
I look forward to sharing more interesting articles with you in 2017.
Best wishes,
Erica Fotineas
