HAPPINESS AND FULFILMENT

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come, without leaving happier. ~Mother Teresa

As we celebrated International Happiness Day few days ago, we affirmed that comparison is the death of zeal, joy and happiness; besides learning to define what is happiness for us as an individual, and what shall we do to be happy in our last edition.

So are you happy?

Well, let's take one step further now towards happiness. What makes for a happy life?

Philosophers have pondered this question for millennia continually to come up with different theories and recommendations to be happy, but without any hard evidence.

And this is what inspired the most long-running study of Harvard University on happiness and finding fulfillment in life since 1930.

Concrete, recurrent findings from this ongoing study have been parsed over the years and now they’ve been put together into the book namely,?The Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by the study's current directors.

This study not only reveals what facts lead to a good life of happiness and fulfillment but also emphasizes that it’s never too late to nudge our own lives in a happier, healthier direction. Let's have the big release -

The Key to Good Life

Well it is not career achievement, wealth, exercise or healthy diet as most people think, although these matters too.

It is good relationships in life that demonstrates a broad and enduring cause for happiness and fulfillment in life.

The study establishes that people who are more connected to family, someone special as partner, to friends, and to community, are happier and physically healthier than people who are less well connected.

Well this is both good news and bad.

Good in the sense that this suggests a practical way to improve our lives by nurturing relationships in life, no matter how bad things are.

But loneliness and disconnection seems to be rampant in our society because of the prevalent lifestyle and culture that pushes us, especially millennials and Gen X, to be alone and overachieving at the expense of our relationships.

Henceforth, if we don’t understand what makes us happy, we may end up choosing unwisely. For instance, pursuing high-salaried jobs that take us away from our good relationships or community.

Nonetheless the life circumstances not always make it easier or harder to preserve our happiness and fulfillment at times such the early loss of a parent or partner, discrimination, child abuse, poverty, or illness.

Yet having positive social and intimate ties still?makes a difference?in our quest for happiness and fulfilling survival, suggesting that our relationships make us more resilient in the face of life’s hardships to be stable and happy.

Evidently, the capacity of our relationships in life can affect our well-being and health so much unknowingly.

So what are you thinking now?

Do you have good relationships in life?

How many good relationships in life you have?

Do you feel happy and fulfilled in these relationships?

Do you have someone to hug or get hugged when you ends or starts your day?

Well while you ponder over these questions, lets decode as how to cultivate better relationships in life; and how can we take our social connections in a more positive direction whether that’s at home, with friends, at work, or in our communities...

Wishing you loads of happiness, joy and fulfilment; and a good life.

Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness. ~Steve Marabol

Follow?Sudhir Mehta?|?Watch out?MusingsOfAnHRGuy?for more

Credits - 美国加州大学伯克利分校 's The Greater Good Science Center; Harvard Study of Adult Development; Jill Suttie; Robert Waldinger MD, Marc Schuz PHD