This is the first article in this series of my deep, philosophical thoughts on social, global, and individual issues.

Finding Happiness

What is happiness?

Happiness can be defined as the feelings or emotions you are experiencing in the state of being happy. So what does it mean to be happy?

To be happy or to be in the state of being happy means that you're not only content with what's going on around you but you also can see the positives in your current environment. To clarify, happiness isn't a result of doing something new or making a big purchase, its how you look at the world around you. Being happy isn't an achievement, it's a feeling and we have the power to control our minds into thinking a certain way leading to an excessive output of happiness.

When an individual is down or feeling depressed, their mind is always telling them how they should feel and how to do things to keep feeling down and sad. Now if this is relative to you then that means your mind is already conditioned to this way of thinking. This is why when you get happy for a moment it seems like it can be easily lost. That's because our mind wants to revert back to the previous way it knows how to think. If we can condition our mind to see positives in everything around us then we will be in the state of happiness, and as long as we continue to condition our minds this happiness can be eternal.

Sure there will down times and rough patches but our mind will always revert back to what it knows best, and to be in the state of happiness we need to train our minds to do so.

Where does happiness come from?

Like I wrote about earlier, happiness is a state of being for your mind powered by emotions. So if happiness comes from happy emotions then how do we produce these emotions once, twice, and all the time? To experience these emotions we need to set up our minds in the correct way so that our thoughts we produce on subjects will translate into the emotion of being happy. This leads us to the example mindset of someone who is happy has. By mimicking this mindset and conditioning your brain over and over to commit this mindset to your natural way of thinking, we become happy.

So how does someone who is happy think? Well they are calm, positive thinking, humorous, outgoing, and social. You might already posses a couple of these qualities and that's great! Or you may be thinking "I already am all of those but I'm still not happy." Chances are you're not all of those because if you thought of a statement like that then you aren't thinking positively.

So you know what it takes to be happy but how do you get there?

How to make yourself happy

To make yourself happy you have to take those 5 qualities listed above (Positive Thinking, Outgoing, Social, Humorous, and Calm) and begin to embed them into your way of thinking. To embed them into your mind you have to slowly condition each of these qualities into your everyday lifestyle. To do this best, I personally think you should spend time at the end of each day to reflect on what you did that day. You know that time when you've turned off the bedroom lights and you're just laying in bed waiting to fall asleep? That's the perfect time!

Think about what you did that day and how it can be related to one of the qualities. If it can't then think of ways of how you could have approached the situation with one of the qualities implemented.

For example: Say you and your friend were planning on seeing a movie and last minute he/she has to cancel on you. You may have gotten upset and expressed that feeling in your tone of voice and may have came off rude. So you go home and you sit on your couch or lay in bed while still carrying that feeling.

Reflect on situations like this at night! Maybe you could have remained calm and offered a time to reschedule? If you still had tickets maybe ask a different friend or someone who you haven't talked to in a while to join you for the movie. Stay thinking positively in each situation and not only will that sad emotion fly right through you but other people will notice your appeared happy state and admire you for coming off as happy even maybe when you're focused on reaching that state still.

This process of conditioning your mind becomes self-progressed. You will see results almost immediately once you start implementing this into your lifestyle. Where people fail is that they think they're good on conditioning and they're happy only to stop doing what made them happy in the first place. That's what it means when people say do what makes you happy. It means to make choices and look at life as if you're already happy, and then you will enter into that state of being happy.

What makes me happy?

This final part is for me personally to show you what makes me happy. I'm the type of person to find a comfort and calmness when I type and write for the sake of communicating. I use writing as a way to communicate to the internet and apply a bit of social aspect too. I also enjoy being social with friends and communicating in person. I use to be someone who was always looking for what to say next and what to ask the person I was speaking too. That was the wrong way to think because I wasn't thinking calmly and positively. I started to begin to listen to what the other person was saying and I'd respond to them directly by giving my genuine positive response and it was easy! If that's who you are as a person then I recommend you do more listening and replying then thinking and stating.

I also find happiness in everyday life. When my dog throws up and makes a mess, I don't get mad or angry at him. I stay calm and I laugh at how innocent he looks when he gives me puppy dog eyes. He knows he messed up already if he gives you those eyes, so there is no need to be upset or angry. Him throwing up just gives me a good reason to give him a bath and spend more time with him! You see... it's how you think about different situations that produce the happiness emotion.

Try this out for yourself and think positively when a tough situation occurs.

Thanks for reading! Follow my profile @isaacfrett and leave a comment or upvote if this helped you!

Have a great day!

-Isaac