Happiness

Happiness

It’s a big topic! Many clients talk to me about wanting to ‘be happy,’ yet they don’t actually know what it would take for them to be happy when we discuss it further. It leads me to continually think that happiness is about chasing a feeling for most people- a warmness, a joy, a ‘not being sad’ experience that lasts longer than a few days. When I consider it like this- maybe people chase contentment rather than happiness? Are the two interlinked?

Rather than debate the semantics on this one I thought it would be useful to get you as visitors to the site to think about what makes YOU happy. With it being such a huge area for contemplation I’ll pose a few prompts below to get you to think on:

• What makes me laugh?
• What made me happy as a child and do I still do this/ still laugh at it?
• What do I miss doing?
• Do I like who I am?
• Is there anyone in my life that causes me a lot of unnecessary stress?
• What was the last thing I did that made me smile?
• How long ago did I last smile?
• If I didn’t have to work, what would I do with my life?
• Do I like my job?
• Am I satisfied with my life?

In 10 questions you can see we have already explored humour, childhood, memories, identity, stress, relationships, work/life balance, employment and ‘the self.’ These were random questions that came to me as I typed this- how many more searching questions have you asked yourself lately? What did these questions bring up for you?

So, when a client sits down and talks about happiness it is no easy feat to tackle, as it leaks into all areas of their lives.

Here’s a good metaphor for this: so, say having a car would make you happy, we need to consider the below as a start:

• What make and model?
• Can you afford the car you want?
• What colour?
• What specifications do you want?
• How many seats?
• Who will you insure with and at what level?
• Do you need breakdown cover?

The point I am trying to make is happiness is a very individual thing, one person may be overjoyed at a second hand car, one careful owner, 60,000 on the clock, going from A to B. Another might want a sports car with all the trimmings and its own security guard! It’s all about choices, perspective and our needs as a person. Each person needs different things from their lives. What do you want from yours? What changes do you need to make to start feeling happy?