What is the best way to achieve happiness?

Question

I try to accept things as they are and make the most of a situation Yet I am rarely happy. I think sometimes this is because I recognise that the life is too short and that you have to do as much as you can in the time you have. When I think this way I get stressed about not doing what I want to do and I spend so much of my time planning and not doing. Any suggestions to get around this?

Answer 1

Your main problem as you wrote is "I spend so much of my time planning and not doing."

You didn't say what you are planning and what you want to do. I don't know if it's to do with job, family, relationships, school.

I wonder if you are a procrastinator - that's my problem too, if you are one. I mean you keep putting off what what you should do until tomorrow and tomorrow never comes.

The best advice I can give you is that you have to start doing - even if you just take a little step - that's right - step by step - little goals, little achievements and finally you will reach the big one.

Answer 2

I think one never gets to "achieve" happiness. I think there's no "force", if you will, that even considers our happiness. So don't feel badly that happiness is not promised. I think that to experience happiness is to be aware of that which within your each moment, your each day, your living of life itself - be aware of that which makes you feel pleasure. EX: I just love to look at pictures of baby animals. It just makes me happy! So, I do it often. Voila! Some happiness, to order, no less. I was a motherless child after the age of 10 because my mom died, so I had to look here and there for ideas to help me get some understanding. It really shatters your existence when you lose your mom when you're a child. So, I'd just notice things, like a discarded piece of paper on the ground which had words on it. I would try to see if there was something to be learned from the words. One time I was walking in the Graue Mill Nature Center in Hinsdale, Illinois and I saw some index-card sized cards on the ground from time to time. I was walking on a bridal path that paralled the Fox River there. And one of the cards said, "Be Flexible". Isn't that funny? Now I'm a mature woman and I was barely 20 then, but I still remember and use those words. So, be flexible so you can "be there" when the possibility to sense happiness comes along. Because, and this is a quote whose author I can no longer cite, "Happiness in this world is incidental. Seek it and you shall never find it. Instead, it will present itself while you are seeking something else!" Dear person, all you have to do is "turn on" your ability to see what you are amid that gives you pleasure, and happiness will present itself to you along with all the other crap of living that presents itself to you. Hopefully, you'll notice the happiness you feel. Finally, if you need to reorganize your life so you can make room to notice that which makes you happy, then hop to it. Bless.

Answer 3

These compulsive ways of thinking are getting in your way. Begin by accepting YOU are NOT your thoughts and feelings, but the OBSERVER of them. You have already begun to do that but are overly identifying with this egoic self because your learned (subconscious) beliefs are stored chemically in the body as well. They are a kind of software program based on your experience with the limited people you grew up with. The mind/body is geared for survival and we especially retain beliefs that were intensely felt and mimic the stressed behaviors of others.

The defensive ego routines are rarely helpful in achieving "full aliveness" and have to be gradually relinquished in order to become who we are capable of becoming. It is a slow process of remembering who you are by noticing what you love that brought you here. Be patient with yourself. The stress is not real, not helpful and not YOU. YOU are aware of its patterns which can be traced to an original source, reframed in the light of reason and discarded.

Answer 4

For me, its through educating myself and learning about everything I possibly could. I read on different subjects (art, history, psychology, music, religion, etc.).

I also am very interested in culture, so I try to travel a lot and meet different types of people and learn their culture. I accept differences in beliefs and I respect different customs and traditions. It helps me to understand where people are coming from.

I also observe my actions and reactions very closely and try to analyze them. I read a lot of self-help books. I like to get advice from experts. And I do things to clear my mind so its free from clutter and bad thoughts and allow wisdom to enter.

I try to access a higher power that created perfection, such as the system of the universe, creation of life, art, literature, love, etc.

By understanding life, acquiring wisdom, accepting life and people as they are, and believing in a higher power, I come close to happiness as I could.

Answer 5

Ignorance. If you aren't aware of what is going on around you, there is nothing you can really care about, so therefore you have no complications with it. Ignorance = Happiness. so in other words, it's better to be stressed out about stuff than ignorant (My opinion).

Answer 6

Happiness is not a state of emotional satisfaction. Happiness is the fulfillment of the purpose of one's nature in accord with virtue.

Answer 7

Once you start accepting and loving yourself...things will find its own ways of letting you achieve happiness.

Answer 8

dont put too much stress on your self...live by the day, do things that you should by the day, try to relax sometimes.....and the best...be contented

Answer 9

the path of our lord Buddha might show you how to cope with life
do some reading on the subject

Answer 10

FIRST of all know how to accept failures in life and know how to get in to the top from bottom . u would not get anything if u dont know how it will effect on u. always know that every part of your life contains two sides one is success and another is failure . so please get things right always .