Happiness and How You Can Achieve it.
What Is Happiness?
What makes someone happy? Is it their job? Their relationships? Where they live? Their hobbies?
Well, it’s all of these and none of these. Achieving happiness is very much like a pair of shoes, one size does not fit all. What makes one person happy may not make another person happy. Happiness is entirely based upon the individual. Take for example location, I received a comment on my video about leaving the UK stating “Happiness is not location-based”. I completely agree with this comment but let me explain.
Picture yourself living in a dangerous part of any city, living on the 14th floor in a tower block that smells like urine, streets covered in garbage, crime through the roof, living expenses through the roof. Now I know personally I wouldn’t be happy there. Although I may have everything that I personally want that results in happiness for me, my location is one of the many factors that fill up my happiness meter.
On the other hand, someone may have everything that fills up their happiness meter regardless of their location. Where they live may have no impact on them. I know people who absolutely love living in London and are planning to make the big move from sunny Australia to cold London. To me, that is insanity but is a decision they have made which makes them happy. Let’s stick to the theme of location and move on to my next subject on happiness.
Nature
For some reason, these days I find nature is criminally disrespected in society. To me, surrounding myself in nature by taking a visit to a forest helps disconnect me from the busy hustle and bustle of life. It removes me from expectations, the fast passing of time and slows things down, helps ground myself and reminds me of what is actually important in life and what is just white noise.
Take some time every now and then to remove yourself from society and sit still. This doesn’t have to be in nature, it could be at any place that makes you feel calm or at peace, perhaps a cathedral, your local church, or your favourite coffee shop. As the heading of this section, I find I’m most at peace in nature, a place where I can be in solitude.
Goals/Future Planning
Goals and prepping for the future are great ways that not only keep me occupied but help build an internal purpose, a roadmap if you will of things to achieve and strive towards. As everything this will be down to the individual to decide what goals they wish to pursue and can be as large or as small as they desire. They can be as small as breaking a new PB at the gym to grabbing life by the reins and starting that business or YouTube channel you’ve always dreamed of starting.
It also helps me personally to have a rough idea of where I would like to be in the next x amount of years whether it be 1 year, 5 years or 10 years. Now, please understand that you should never (in my opinion) stick to future goals on where and what you want to be as if they are going to happen. Life is a very strange thing and loves to throw curve balls at you when you least expect it, altering your course. This also doesn’t mean you should give up of course, but never get disheartened if things don’t happen. Just like when you get lost and Google Maps re-routes you, you must also re-route yourself when things take a turn.
Stay positive, stride towards your goals but get ready to make some adjustments along the way.
Travel
Travel makes the world go round! Well, it makes my world go around at least. If you’re an avid traveller then you may as well skip this section as you don’t need to hear me bang on about how great it is! If you’re not much of a travelling type or don’t even have a passport (like one of my mates) then this section also might not mean much to you.
Travelling really does broaden the mind. Before 2023 I very rarely travelled, much of that was naturally due to the COVID pandemic but I also did not have much of a care for it, crazy to think that now… I can’t get enough of it. Travelling is one of those things (especially solo travelling) which can be very daunting, but believe me, it’s one of the best things you can do.
When I go travelling I’m like a dog that’s had its leash taken off and let loose in a field, taking in all the new architecture, the food, the people the sounds, smells, weird little things in the stores! It’s just an incredibly freeing feeling being away from home, where no one knows who you are. Although I have done some solo travelling, one of the best things I have ever done is a group tour in SE Asia with a company called G Adventures. This is a great way to start your travelling bug. You’ll meet incredible people and have the time of your life in a whole new environment that will breathe a new sense of life into you and put a smile on your face when you return home.
You can find a link to G Adventures below, I am not affiliated with them and there are many other companies out there that provide similar services, G Adventures is just the company I have previously used and they have been fantastic.
Hobbies
This may seem like the common sense part of this article but let me explain. Having a hobby is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of your life that keeps you grounded. It provides you with an outlet to forget about the things that do not matter in life and focus on the activities you enjoy. Not only that but many hobbies can be group based whether it be photography, Bush crafts, painting, mountain biking etc where you can meet like-minded people.
I find these days a lot of people who lack hobbies end up putting their energy into things that do not matter. Take for example the recent US presential race that Donald Trump has won. In Norway, they found a surge in their government-provided emergency mental health phone line in which one-third were calling regarding not knowing how to process the fact Donald Trump had won. That is how you know people are not giving their energy to the correct things in life.
I’m going to plug one of my favourite hobbies, Urban exploring, it’s a humble little brag just because I find it so much fun! Here are some snaps I took with a mate at an Asylum in Wales.
Social Media
Social media is a blessing and a curse, it allows businesses to reach new untapped markets and potential customers to help build their brand and make a name for themselves. It also allows independent content creators to reach people globally to showcase their talents, entertain and help others.
It also sucks people into a never-ending dopamine-inducing whirlpool which wastes people’s lives away endlessly doom scrolling. It is to be used at a distance with moderation. I’m not going to pretend I’m some anti-social media guru that never uses it, my crux is Instagram personally and can easily find myself scrolling through endless reels (mainly because they can be so fucking funny) but I make sure to limit my use.
Of course, there are exceptions, say for example you run a business which relies on social media, that is a perfectly valid reason, as long as that is how it stays. However, if you don’t then there really is no reason to be on any sort of Social Media in my opinion. Now I’m not saying you have to go cold turkey, try deleting the apps to start with and see how you get on, perhaps try deactivation your account for a little bit (not deleting it).
Life truly is better offline, I cannot stress that enough. Your mind can be bombarded with time-wasting activities and false portrayals of other people’s lives which can leave you feeling down about your own.
Conclusion
To round things up I’m going to repeat myself, unfortunately. Happiness is an Individual set of terms that only you can work on. All of the above are just a few things which help me stay happy but I do believe some of these to be universal. Happiness is not something that you can or should even want to feel 24/7, otherwise, how would you know when you’re happy? Life is full of ups and downs so just make the most of the ups and take care of yourself during the downs 🙂
If you would like to reach out to me for any reason feel free to drop me a message via email using [email protected] or use my contact form found here
Good luck out there and remember, “we suffer more in imagination than in reality” – Seneca
