Living Life This Side of Happy

What is happiness? How can we achieve happiness and is it even possible to be chronically happy?

Happiness exists on a spectrum and ranges anywhere from superficial and temporary to mindful and transcendental.

If we think of happiness on a continuum, we find that at the most superficial level what makes us happy is generally determined by our mood and fleeting events or triggers.

This could be receiving a raise or promotion at work, getting married, seeing an old friend, buying a new pair of shoes, or eating a piece of chocolate. This kind of happy is external and short-lived. This is the kind of happiness that is based on emotion.

So how can we achieve the kind of happiness that is not based on superficial or fleeting emotion?

3 Keys to Living Life This Side of Happy

1. Mindset. Achieving true happiness starts by having the right mindset. Knowing that your current circumstances, whether positive or negative, do not influence your outlook is the start of living a more contented life.
2. Relationships. Another way to live a contented and fulfilled life is to foster strong relationships. Having strong relationships with your friends, family, and romantic partner is the key to increasing feelings of belonging, boosting mental health, and decreasing feelings of loneliness.
3. Self-love. You cannot live a satisfied and fulfilling life if you do not love yourself. Loving yourself is not being selfish. Having self-esteem and valuing yourself is necessary to feel satisfied in confident in your own skin.

Living life “this side of happy” means striving to be grateful, satisfied, fulfilled, and loved.

It is this type of “happy” that we should strive to achieve. The “happy” that is sustained, quiet, grateful, and self-actualized.