Dad’s View

We can broadly divide our life experiences into six main areas: (1) Family & Social (2) Professional (3) Health (mind & body) (4) Spiritual (5) Financial, and (6) Intellectual. In order for one to be truly happy, he or she must constantly strive to achieve a balance between these six areas of his/her life.

If you neglect even one of these six vital areas of life and are greatly successful in the rest, it will be difficult for you to achieve true lasting happiness. For example, one may be extremely successful financially but if one has poor health (physical or mental) he/she will never achieve lasting happiness. If you are rich and healthy but have a problem keeping harmonious relationships with close family and friends, happiness will evade you forever! Unless we learn to achieve a proper balance between these six areas of life we cannot achieve happiness!

My Mindmap – Lifestyle for Happiness (see above!)

We all seek happiness in life! However, some people seem to demand happiness as if something or someone outside can make them happy. Such people can never know happiness until they break out of the tiny bubble of their self-centered lives! Happiness can never be directly sought, it is the byproduct of healthy activities toward a worthy objective or ideal.

We must have our minds fixed on something other than our own happiness (e.g. a hobby, passion, or a worthy goal) in order to find it. If we seek it directly, happiness will elude us forever like a mirage in a desert.

The happiest people are usually the busiest people, serving others in a meaningful fashion. By losing themselves passionately in their current goals and pursuits, happiness serendipitously seeps into their lives and becomes an inherent part of them.

Most people seem to be looking outside to someone or some “thing” to make them happy which is a great illusion one must strive to shatter. Remember, happiness is an inside job!

John Stuart Mill’s Definition of “Happiness”

“Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else they find happiness by the way.”

– John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an influential British philosopher, economist, politician, and senior official in the East India Company.

A Poem by Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Literature Laureate

 “I slept and dreamt the life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold, duty was joy!”

– Rabindranath Tagore, a Literature Laureate dedicated his life to poetry, art, and music, composing the Indian national anthem and the national anthem of Bangladesh

Shivani’s View

Happiness can mean different things to each person. For some, it can mean freedom, dedication, or purpose. Happiness can also be found in the mundane little pockets of joy that we experience daily. Overall, I think happiness is a matter of perspective and intention. It’s a daily choice. Life will undulate on a pendulum but we can intentionally choose to fill our lives with the thoughts, feelings, people, and things that align with our values and purpose. However, there is a bit of self-exploration, reflection, and work that has to be done to get here. Where there is dissonance within ourselves there will only be unhappiness. To me, it is empowering to think of happiness in the context of control.  We can choose to move on, forgive, and fill our lives with who and what we value. We can choose to be happy.

I have kept it quite simple for this blog post. I am sharing a list of a few of my small pockets of joy:

• Yellow and orange flowers
• Watermelon on a hot summer day
• Opening all the windows on a crisp fall day and letting the cold air in
• Hosting family and friends 
• The planning and anticipation before a big trip
• Taking care of my many plants
• Creating something of my own or a DIY project
• Traveling
• Being with people who understand me the most (i.e. my closest family and friends)
• My mom’s cooking
• Tomatoes and burrata
• Reflejos, a magazine I created at University of South Florida
• Friendly people you meet while traveling
• Sending and receiving postcards and handwritten cards
• Sunrises in Miami with my college friends
• Charcuterie for dinner
• People who make you feel special
• Neighborhood walks
• Spending time and traveling with Ronak
• The warm feeling and joy at my wedding
• Good driving music
• A quiet early morning with coffee and good reading
• Romanticizing life