Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Happiness is like a butterfly... in flight

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By Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla


We know that happiness can predict health and longevity at times and can be used as a standard to measure social progress as well.


Certainly everyone seeks happiness, but what kind of happiness do people want? Is it the experience of happiness at its moment or when we look back on the past remembering our happy times? I would say that happiness is like a butterfly when you follow it, it is always out of your grip, but if it sits still and quiet, it may burn! In fact, people search for happiness here and there, and some people may continually try to find that strange formula to make their life happier. Perhaps it is the fact that a person always aspires to be better and to be happy.


However, by looking around, people might question their happiness when something important happens in their lives. Interestingly man’s life experience releases him to discover himself, is it the loss of a dear one, the loss of his job, his retirement or a change of the place? Of course, they are experiences, nevertheless for many of us the key to happiness often lies in ourselves, hidden in our subconscious as humans. Probably happiness like other emotions is not something you get but rather something you live.


When you get confused and angry while you are driving, for instance, as a result of a traffic jam, you do not feel self-conscious about the state of anger, in fact here you do not think of yourself (is what I am doing right!), you just live the anger and adopt it. That is why it is important to realise that finding happiness is not achieved by itself, but rather is a side effect of a certain set of continuous life experiences.


What I would like to point out is that most people create certain stages in their life and when that stage is achieved, it is definitely filled with joy and happiness. Therefore, at this stage if I am right, it has removed the previous emotional and mental burden and began to approach the next phase of his or their life with a lighter approach, from finding a job or getting ready for marriage, for example, the person feels happy and prepares to pursue his next goal of happiness.


Of course, another aspect that must be taken into account is the science of happiness. Neurochemicals such as dopamine and serotonin may differ from person to person. Interestingly, they are not the only thing you need to be happy as there are other reasons that have been studied and good concepts have evolved over the past twenty years and possibly one of them is the concept of positive psychology, which really came to draw the attention of psychology towards positive elements that will help people create a happier life.


Moreover, to simplify an easy way to boost your happiness scale, you can try staying in a place with good weather for half an hour every day. Just by staying in the good and beautiful weather, it becomes clear to you how it can significantly enhance your positive mood and it can also help in improving your memory. This leads us all to realize the importance of weather and its effect on happiness and likely the relationship of self-happiness to temperature. One of the studies showed that the temperature at 13.9 degrees Celsius may increase and even maximize the measure of happiness.


Not to mention that exercise and eating a healthy diet also have important roles in raising the happiness level, as studies also confirmed that physically active people have a lower risk in view of psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression. In addition, exercising daily releases of endorphins that make you feel better and eating foods such as poultry, fish, milk and bananas help to sort out dopamine, which in turn regulates the reward and joy centers in the brain. In any case, I believe that happiness is an option and not only as a result of current circumstances, so do not fall into the trap of thinking that your circumstances must change before you are happy because you will never arrive there. If you are waiting for enough money to be generous, you will never get there.


Rather, you should choose to be generous with your time and money, with a little discipline in your life to be happy today and tomorrow. On the other hand, it is important to recall that close relationships with your friends and family are more important than happiness in life, we should not always think about short-term emotions at all, but rather about the quality of life that we live and a long-term view of the meaning of the word happiness.


Actually, the experience of being satisfied with long-term life is originally made of fortune and fame and I believe it does make people happy throughout their lives and even help them delay mental and physical deterioration over time. At the end, I should remind you that the most effective way to achieve lasting happiness is not only by looking at your own interests, but also at the interests of others. When we shift our focus away from ourselves, we are living a life of greater and deeper meaning, thus it is not easy for many to seek happiness.


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