Happiness is Health

Happiness is Health

Happiness is an inside job - and only you, are capable of nurturing this emotion in yourself, and your surroundings.
Happiness tends to be a broad term that describes positive emotions such as satisfaction and joy. And according to new studies, happiness not just make you feel good, it brings you good health too.
Today we’ll tell you what effects happiness have on your health.

Healthy Lifestyle
Happiness brings lots of positive habits to your lifestyle such as happy people are more likely to eat healthy food such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. You can totally relate to this, whenever we’re sad, we tend to eat junk food which afterwards makes us feel like shit, and we’re even more sad (It’s a loop). People who have a diet rich in fruits and vegetables have lesser chances of having diabetes, a stroke or heart diseases. 

In a study of 7000 individuals, researchers found out that happy people were 33% more likely to have physical activity.
Positive well-being also improves the quality of sleep, which is important to have better concentration, productivity and a healthy weight.

Increase Life Expectancy
Being happy have been closely associated with longer life span for a long time now. And is now backed by science too, according to some studies, the risk of death was 14% higher in individuals who were not happy.

How to be happy?
Yeah, here is the big question. We can go on telling you the effects of being happy on your health all day but the important thing is, how does one become happy? Being sad from time to time, such as feeling sad when it rains, loss of a loved one is totally okay. However, it becomes a problem when you think of yourself and your life as meaningless, the sense of being incomplete even though you’ve reached milestones, the feeling of loneliness even when you’re with the people you like and love, the lack of tenderness for the things you used to love and the feelings of regret.  

Whoever you ask, wherever you search, you will get different answers. And the problem with that is everybody has been on their own journeys. However, what I’ve found on my ‘’quest’’ for unbounded happiness are 4 elements through which happiness builds up. They are Purpose, Belonging, Transcendence and Storytelling. 

Purpose
Most of us, we think our purpose is our work, but true purpose which holds meaning lies beyond what we do for ourselves, it’s not about what we do for ourselves but what we do for others, how to serve others, what to give to others, that is purpose and that is love. The feeling of being needed feels good, it’s happiness.

Belonging
The second element, Belonging. We all experience a sense of belonging by being in relationships with individuals and groups where we are valued for what and who we are and we value them back.  And this is a two way street, you will have feeling of belonging to a particular person or group only if they get the same feeling from you, a mutual trust.

Transcendence

Transcendence, the third element. It’s the little things that we like to do which brings us joy, and that’s when we feel transcendence. For some people it could be painting, for some writing or photography, maybe cooking or going to an art gallery. The feeling of highest form of joy in experiencing things.

Storytelling

Storytelling. The story we tell ourselves shapes our present and future. Most of us who can’t be happy tend to dwell on our past, we describe ourselves based on our past and have made up our story in our minds that we keep repeating to ourselves which makes up the person we are in the present. If I tell myself I’ve done things in the past which I regret, it is the story I tell myself and it shapes me and my future, however, if I tell myself I’ve done things but I learned from them and my learnings can make me a better version of myself, that story will take me to the positive side, the happy side. Remember, it’s the stories we tell ourselves that defines us.