Liv Walde
Gratitude is in many cases the key to happiness.
Even if it is by helping others that you feel a sense of accomplishment and notice your mood lighten, this is a product of your own internal happiness.
The issue is that not everyone benefits so much from selflessness, nor are they aware of what ticks their boxes and makes them happy.
You might look in wonder at those who seem perpetually and wonder what their secret is.
Well, I have the answer waiting for you.
Those who lead the happiest lives are usually happy about the following 8 things:
1) Life itself
Sounds cheesy, I know.
But the chances of you being born and being here today are at least 1 in 400 trillion.
That is incredibly small. Teensy tiny, in fact.
The odds of your existence being so minute, why not enjoy how much of a blessing it is that you do actually get to walk this earth?
There are so many other particles and stars that haven’t been formed together to create a four legged creature such as yourself.
Your very existence is a miracle, and those who appreciate the value and fortune of this carry with them a constant state of happiness and thankfulness.
2) The first coffee of the day
Tea drinkers, step aside.
The caffeine-loving amongst us will know what I’m talking about.
I can drink the same mug of black coffee every morning and still relish every cup.
Treating myself to a tasty sugar-filled Starbucks or a frothy hipster cappuccino makes my mornings even more enjoyable.
Little things such as morning rituals which fill you with contentment add up, and it’s always these little things which make up an overall state of fulfillment and enjoyment of the lives we live.
3) The doors that have been closed on them
Conversely, happy people see rejections and closed doors as necessary steps to their journey.
Certainly, rejection stings.
But those who lead the happiest lives generally live by the motto, ‘if one door closes, another opens’.
All those unanswered text messages, job rejections, declined offers – they all mean that the universe was waving her arms and telling them that they were headed in the wrong direction.
Happy people learn from these rebuttals. They rarely take them personally and instead view them as guidance leading them in the direction they ought to be going in.
4) Nature
Being able to stop, breathe, and take in the beautiful scents of nature is a wondrous thing.
Happy people aren’t so focused on their phones or on the pavement that they forget to look up and see the sky.
Or the trees.
Or hear the birds call.
Nature has so much to offer us and so much to teach us.
We live in a world which is increasingly urbanized and moving away from the luscious spells of greenery and freshness, but happy people do what they can to make time to reconnect with mother earth.
Whether that’s by setting time aside for park walks or long hiking expeditions, they remember that nature is where we came from, and that it must be cherished and protected.
Those tiny strawberry plants on their kitchen window sill probably get more love than you’d ever imagine.
5) Rain
You think rain and you think of soppy clothes and soaking hair, rivulets running down your breath.
But happy people tend to see the world in a different light; rain included.
Petrichor is the smell of rain. You usually only notice it after it hits slabs of concrete or mossy forest floors.
Happy people find joy wherever they go, even in things that many others would see as mundane or even a nuisance.
Embracing the rain, dancing in it, and kissing like young lovers are all actions that those who make the most out of life rejoice in when rain starts to fall.
6) Spreading kindness
The very ability to be able to give is a blessing in itself.
Whether your last penny or a couple notes when your bank is filled to the brim, giving is an act which makes happy individuals even more overjoyed.
Truly selfless and kind individuals grow increasingly more difficult to come by in a world where many perform actions of so-called ‘kindness’ to better their own reputations.
But these happy individuals enjoy giving.
They enjoy helping others and having a positive impact (no matter how big or small), and they enjoy the feeling and sense of usefulness it bestows upon them.
7) Friendship
And where all romantic relationships fail, it’s your friends that you fall back upon.
Happy people know this.
Some value their friends more than their partners, and for good reason.
We partner up and in some cases marry or have children for the usual reasons.
But maintaining a true, credible friendship is harder to explain and justify.
Yet, we live and love our friends with this stoic and pure love for no other reason than the fact that we can. There is no obligation.
And it’s usually our friends that are there to pick us up and put back the pieces should anything go wrong.
Happy people love and cherish their friends and provide the most sincere and adoring level of friendship possible.
8) Complexity of emotions
For happy people, they tend not just to exist on one plain of happiness.
To be happy, you must also know sadness, after all.
Yet, these truly happy and grateful individuals understand that the lows must come. How else would they know when they were truly happy?
Thus, they tend to embrace and feel emotions like sadness or anger or fear, often at an extreme level.
The very ability to feel these emotions is in itself something they are immensely grateful for.
Final words
This idea of being perpetually happy is pretty unrealistic, unless like the joke, you have a smile carved into your lips.
But the secret to staying happy and being grateful is knowing that the less enjoyable emotions come in its wake.
And if you never experience the ‘lows’, how do you ever reach the highs?
The key is in not distinguishing one from the other.
Happy people feel blessed to be here and to be able to feel such a wide and complex range of emotions.
The scope of being able to feel is to them a gift in itself.
And whilst sadness and envoy affect them as much as anyone else, they learn from these.
If you’re trying to become happier yourself, start incorporating some of these points for yourself.
Happy and grateful people acknowledge when they’re faced with rejection and with hurt, but take it as a sign to persevere and continue to experience and learn from all life has to offer.
