More Happiness

What good are money, confidence and relaxation if they do not bring happiness? Occasionally, even with all of the above, there can still be a restlessness in our life as we keep searching for the elusive happiness.

Would you like to be happier?

Happiness is more of a decision than a state of mind.

Research about major lottery winners shows that after an initial period of euphoria, most return to the same level of general happiness that they felt before their win.

It seems that people have a relatively constant level of happiness. But can we move our average level of happiness up? We certainly can!

Science shows that happiness is caused by endorphins and dopamine filling the pleasure centres of the brain, which brings joy and cessation of pain. But what triggers this chemistry? Evolution plays a role because we have learned to like the things that will propagate our species.

But there are other factors that influence our happiness. We can enhance our joy, our pleasure and our contentment by practicing techniques that change the focus of our mind to conentrate on the things that make us happy.

Fundamentally, this means the reduction of attention to areas of life that bring us pain and minimising thoughts of past hurts or future stresses. Meditation, with the assistance of a mentor, is a great tool for this purpose.