PROBLEMS? WHAT PROBLEMS?
LIFESTYLE
HAPPINESS SOLUTION THE
By Simon Mattews, MHlthSci Dip.IBLM NBC-HWC
One of the first things we notice every day is our level of happiness. As soon as we open our eyes in the morning, we have a sense of our mood and how happy we are. Take a second as you read this and give yourself a rating from 0-10, with 0 being very unhappy and 10 being very happy. What number is in your head? The actual number isn’t as important — since our level of happiness can change and fluctuate through the day—as what you choose to do about that level.
LET’S BREAK THE LINK BETWEEN UNHAPPINESS & PROBLEMS
If I asked you how you might go about increasing your score on that scale, even by just one point, chances are you’d want to eliminate a problem you are currently struggling with. Or you might tell me that an event could increase your happiness – such as a friend buying you lunch or coffee, paying you a compliment or acknowledging some effort you have made.
While there’s no doubt that experiences like this can generate a sense of happiness, what are you left with ten minutes after you've eaten that last mouthful of mint-choco-chip ice cream? How do you feel two days after returning to work after that vacation? The happiness we derive from short-term pleasures is just that – short-term. So we head off in search of another experience to top up our happiness level. Unfortunately, humans
That could work, but it would be only one step toward increasing your overall happiness. It’s more important to think about increasing the resources that we might bring to bear on difficult and challenging situations. It’s even more important to go a step further and think about developing a mindset in which you’re less likely to see problems as causes of unhappiness. Problems, challenges, difficulties – we all face them, pretty much every day. Instead of trying to escape or ignore those problems, we need to learn to think differently about what we’re facing and develop our coping capacities. Believe it or not, even talking about “problems” has a negative impact on the way we see the world.
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C RAC KYL MAGAZ I N E
One of the traps that’s easy to fall into is equating “happiness” with “an easy life” or at least a life perceived to be without problems and difficulties. This view of happiness is based in hedonia – the seeking of happiness that comes with whatever gives you joy. For you, that might be a vacation at the beach, a leisurely meal with loved ones, binge-watching a new TV series or something as simple as a dish of mint-choco-chip ice cream.
