Who doesn’t want to be happy? We seek happiness in and
through all our activities consciously or unconsciously. However, everyone
defines happiness in his/her own way. Martin Seligman, founder of the Positive
Psychology, defines happiness through the following formula:
Happiness
= Pleasure + Engagement + Meaning
Pleasure
is the lowest form of happiness. It is derived from fulfilling base desires
mostly connected with the sense objects. You feel pleasure when you eat your desired
chocolate. But this pleasure doesn’t last long. Also, it follows the law of
diminishing returns. Your pleasure starts reducing as you eat more chocolates.
This type of happiness is short-lived and often ends in misery.
Engagement involves others and beyond your own basic desires. It brings
greater joy. When you are engaged in a sport or social activity, you feel much happier
than simply eating a chocolate. Engagement may start with working for your
family’s welfare. But as you enlarge your area of engagement, the happiness
also increases. However, even this happiness may wear off with time as you feel
exhausted. Ego plays at subtle levels looking for recognition at the least from
such engagements.
Meaning
is following your own internal calling. Every atom has a place and purpose in
the universe. Try to identify what is your innermost calling and then pursue
that in and through all your activities. All great people found their respective
callings and invested their entire lives following it. Chade-Meng Tan of Google
has found meaning in making the whole world happy through his successful
in-house course “Search Inside Yourself” within Google (now also available in
form of a book).
Many of us fail to find our inner calling. There is an
easier way to find it. Start listing what is not your inner calling by putting
down a desirous activity and then listening to your heart. That which doesn’t
ring a bell in the heart is not your inner calling. This process of elimination
will ultimately lead to that which resonates with your heart and in line with
your conscience.
Those following their callings see deeper meaning in what
they do - much beyond selfish desires and goals. Working with such frame of
mind doesn’t drain your energy. On the other hand, you become a dynamo of
energy. Happiness arising out of such pursuit is the highest and ever-lasting.
