Hindustan Times
Unhappy? Don’t worry
Happiness is all that one wants and we are always on its unending search. But one can’t be happy all the time because of various factors, internal as well as external. It is, therefore, essential that to be happy one has to understand why one is unhappy. If you know the cause and you can redress it or can ignore it, then happiness is yours. That is for sure.
I read a book recently by Prafulla Raval and Vasant Raval that addresses this oft-discussed issue. Titled, Finding Soul in Work and Life, it basically says that we live most often unexamined and disconnected lives, thereby denying ourselves the realisation what is there behind our problem. And that most of the things we think about in daily life are not absolute but relative. We have to understand that knowing this can make a lot of difference in the way we see, prioritise and value things that we choose to do and don’t.
Today you are happy because what you wanted to do could be done. But that state of mind can’t remain unchanged. Your happiness declines in case of repeated experiences of the same kind. It becomes, therefore, very challenging to know how to keep the state of being happy as a permanent feature of your mind.
There is a book, ‘1,000 Places to See Before You Die’ that reminds us that the more you become greedy and expand your worldly desire, the more you are away from the state of being in a happy status.
But one thing one must understand very clearly is that being unhappy is not a bad thing but quite a normal one. You can become happy only if you are unhappy. All of us, or most of us, get disappointed at one time or the other because we don’t have the material comforts we want to have.
It is here that one has to realise that one has to be within the normal limit of unhappiness and that such a state of mind should not drive one to frustration and madness. A normal state of being unhappy is a positive sign of being an aspiring and progressive mind. Only a moron can afford to be doing nothing and yet be happy.
A purpose-driven life has to have a different direction — one of complete self-control of mind to take the desired course. We need to chalk out an action plan to dispel the sources of unhappiness and discontentment so that we are placed on the path of happiness. As James Trustlow Adams said, “Man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.”
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