'Happiness, The Need Of The Hour'  -- Part- 1

"चला उभारूया आनंदाची गुढी"

ll  आनंदाची गुढी उभारूया, आनंद मनमुरादपणे व्यक्त करण्याची गुढी उभारूया, तो श्वासात भरभरून घेऊयात, आणि आनंद टिकवण्याच्या जबाबदारीची गुढी उभारूयात, त्याला स्वतःत आणि सर्वदूर पसरवण्याची गुढी उभारूयात. आपणा सर्वांना मराठी नवीन वर्षाच्या हार्दिक हार्दिक शुभेच्छा. ll 

l सूर्य तोच, पर्व नवे l शब्द तेच, वर्ष नवे l आयुष्य तेच, अर्थ नवे l यशाचे सुरु होवोत, किरण नवे l  

On March 20th the whole world celebrated a very important emotion, the one that manages to be a parameter of how a person’s entire personality is judged. Happiness. This made me incredibly curious as to the state of our country and where we stand in the list that the United Nations put out.

You can read the whole report on the website below. 

http://worldhappiness.report/

Our country featured incredibly low, according to the report mentioned above. Which then made me wonder if it had to do with the perception of living in total darkness? Do we not understand the concept of happiness at all? Or are we constantly engaging ourselves in different pursuits by sacrificing our happiness? Or are we ignorant, having forgotten the reason for life, which is of attaining happiness, adventure, kindness, laughter and humour that play a major role in our lives?

Do we wake up with unhappy feelings? Do we have financial burdens all the time? Are we scared or unable to make appropriate decision regarding our futures? 

Being a Clinical Psychologist, Emotional Intelligence Consultant and Family therapist, I would like to check with my own client’s data. I have noticed that there is a definite increase in the percentage of the clients who are suffering from depression and extreme frustrations along with relationship struggles with their families, their partners, in office spaces, among siblings, in the schools and various other institutions.

We will be certainly looking into the data gathered at 'Mindful Heart Consultancy', and also will be sharing different opinions of citizens from various walks of life that perform exceptionally well in their own professions. Their take on this will be shared as well. 

OBSERVATIONS AT MINDFUL HEART CONSULTANCY:

At mindful heart consultancy, we decided to categorise our clients in six different categories, as per their requirements and services offered in last three years. All the calculations made are in % of clients in that year.

Categories are:

1. Anger management,

2. Frustration,

3. Facing challenges in selection of careers,

4. Struggling to find a purpose in life,

5. Difficulty in expression of happiness and other important emotions,

6. Depression.

There is definite increase in the number of clients of all the above categories; also we can easily observe that categories as depression, anger management, having a purpose in life and difficulty in expressing happiness are increasing every year. In terms of Frustration and facing challenges in selecting a career, we can also observe increase in the year 2016-17. 

I can understand there are limitations to this data as it is the data of just one consultancy. But still it gives us a picture of the society currently. Does it match with the global observations, YES. Google data, 2018 shows that every year cases of depression are increasing. 

 WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

For me happiness is something, which we experience in two ways.

One way is, we experience happiness as an effect of something that we think or do. For example,

1.  We completed our journey without any problem so we are feeling happy.

2.   I could sing a song as per my own idea so I felt happy. 

Another is when we are in a ‘Happy State of Mind’. It may be sustainable virtue for some people and may not be sustainable for others. Looking at things through a lens of happiness, a ‘Happy State of Mind’ helps people to accept the facts and vices. It helps us to manage ourselves, to reach to a golden middle point of two completely different things than each other. 

The first ever Theory of happiness has been put forth by Aristotle, according to him, “He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.” - Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics.

Most of the time, there are things around us, which provide and lead us towards happiness, materialistic items such as money, power, success, good relationships etc.

When any instances which hinders us from achieving any of these goals, we face struggles and feel unhappy.

We In India might be taking time to bounce back on the path where we supposed to be.

Do we do things for ourselves or for others? Does that matter here?

Yes, to attain our own happiness we need to do things for ourselves. We Indians tend to perform acts, which help other people at the cost of our happiness. We try to make others happy and in that process we ourselves remain unhappy. We call it "sacrifice" when it comes to all Indian women and also men who are looking after their families and not doing anything about their own life or passions. 

We do get happiness when we see people around us are happy, but are we ready to look for different ways to live life with what we want in our lives? Are we ready to accept the fact that we are not achieving what we truly want to achieve? Are we ready to accept the fact that we are struggling at a particular space, where we need to explain to others about our own state of mind? And express what actually feel and want to do?

Does the data mentioned in the graph above, explain the truth and throws some light upon above questions? 

I believe so; the data about Depression and Anger management, Difficulty in Expression living life without a singular or multiple other purposes have increased drastically.

The question in front of us at “Mindful Heart Consultancy”, was if we know the answer of ‘What' - what is happening in our life? And also if we know the answer of ‘Why’ to a certain extent, why it is happening in our life? Then do we know the answers of ‘How’, and we realized that we actually struggling with answers of How the most.  

How can I bring that happiness in my life back again? What I will have to do? While thinking about it we at MINDFUL HEART CONSULTANCY decided to have a goal this year as ‘LET US SPREAD THE HAPPINESS.’

We connect it with our gift of this year. Every year we give gifts to our clients and people we know. This is aligned with our goal and mission with what we want to do, as an emotional intelligence and family therapy, consultancy 

WHAT IS MINDFUL HEART HAPPINESS PLANNER? 

We want to initiate the process of happiness and want to give people some direction towards it. Our thought process took us to create this “MINDFUL HEART HAPPINESS PLANNER 2019’ which was greatly appreciated by friends and family alike not just our clients. We have taken this initiative to help people create happiness in their lives. And then that will be able to spread their joy and happiness to other people.

Only feeling happy doesn't help, that is not long lasting, but when people are engaged with the feeling of happiness and connect it with their own passions that is what truly helps.

“MINDFUL HEART HAPPINESS PLANNER – 2019” gives us an opportunity to choose various happiness activities/deeds at daily basis as we start planning for that particular day. 

When we try to plan we also have a look at the happiness activity written in that date. Then it's our own choice whether we want to take up that activity ahead on that day or not, or some other day, we can also decide whether it is in our bucket list? You can also share with your near and dear ones who may want to do something about it, or just by reading the activity in that date itself can help you in navigating your unwanted feelings or start a day with a new energy. That can help us in sustaining our “Happy State Of Mind”. I think that matters a lot.

Me, with my interns and colleagues took almost two complete months to bring our dream on to paper; we were wishing to give to people as, Mindful Heart Happiness Planner - 2019. 

Mindful Heart Happiness Planner-2019

One of our well-wishers has sent this picture and has mounted it in their office. We feel glad when people are using it and taking life seriously happy. 

Author

Arati Suryawanshi

CEO- Mindful Heart Consultancy

Fort, Mumbai.

Here are some overwhelming responses of people who are sharing their thoughts on Happiness and Mindful Heart Happiness Planner 2019. Please check in .....Part II.