Here's still another way to look at happiness; this definition deals mostly with exterior happiness - happiness we use in everyday life.
There are five parts, in my estimation:
1. Be Open-eyed
2. Be Argus-eyed
3. Be Ringside
4. Set Aside.
5. Decide.
2. Be Argus-eyed
3. Be Ringside
4. Set Aside.
5. Decide.
We will deal with them one by one.
Number 1: Be Open-eyed. This means you need to exert mindful effort in seeing, finding, hearing the good that is all around you. Yes, there is plenty of negativity to be had; it sometimes seems to shake its fist in your face.
Thus, you need to search for good. Ofttimes you may even have to grub it out. I watched a docudrama on the tsunami that hit in Indonesia some years ago, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Though those thousands died, and the physical destruction was incredible, the docudrama showed how there could be good presenting itself coming even in those circumstances. People grew; people persevered; people found strength they never knew they had.
May your life never be invaded by a tsunami. But may you be ever opened-eyed to the good that can be found in virtually everything and everyone.
Number 2: Be Argus-eyed. Argus-Panoptes was the all seeing god of Greek mythology. He is often pictured as having 100 eyes. Here the point is that you need to be curious - all-seeing.
Many people merely go through life neglecting half the fun of it - half the happiness that is available externally, because they do not observe well. It is as if they live with blinders on. (Blinders are small plates so placed on a horse's tack that the horse can only see forward. This is good for the horse because it is then undistracted from its task by what may be happening at the periphery of its task.)
I don't mean that you allow yourself to be constantly distracted, of course not. I do mean that you need to be aware of as much of life as you possibly can. This means you need to make a deliberate effort to do more than look forward. So much good can be found at the periphery of your days that it would be a shame to miss the good items and events because you weren't paying attention.
Number 3: Be Ringside. This one easily comes after the last - position yourself in life in such a way as to not drop what you do not wish to miss. Get this - this is another intentional act on your part.
Suppose you are interested in antique planes. A traveling show of such airplanes is coming to your city. To see and experience those planes, however, you have to get up off your couch and purchase a ticket and actually go to the car show. Total couch-potatoes need not apply.
Life happens to those who participate. Of course, you can't do everything. But you can do some things. Get off your duff and do them.
Number 4: Set Aside. Decide that every day you will do something to expand your exterior happiness. You make this into a very good habit.
Find yourself, every day, appending something to your total happiness by doing something, thinking something, being something that conveys joy to you. As childish as this may sound, what fun you could have.
Believe it or not, some folks, a great many, find negative stuff in their day to day lives. And they surely find it. Misery loves company and misery will accompany these folks in the way of unhappiness as surely as the sun rises in the East every morning.
You can have exactly the opposite according the laws of attraction. Deliberately, consciously set aside the energy to look into the positive and you will find your life brim over with positivity.
Number 5: Decide. Consciously make up your mind to have more exterior happiness in your life. "Make up your mind" is the operative phrase here. Build your mind into such a commonwealth that you can do nothing else but be happy exteriorly.
(Interior happiness is spiritual and is the subject of many other of my articles.)
Happiness is primarily and cardinally a decision. Most folks slippery-slope into the mode of being unhappy. It is a least-resistance way to live one's life. It is the indolent person's way through the days of their years.
If you would be happy on a regular and consistent basis, then you must decide to be happy. There is no other way to put it. You have the privilege, being human, of making choices. You are a choice-maker. Unhappiness is chosen however lackadaisically that may come about.
Happiness is also chosen but there is nothing lackadaisical about this choice. You decide. Then you ride that decision for all its worth. Make no mistake, what you decide is how your life will be.
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