Optimistic way of living

Even though you could be definitely happy by simply enjoying the nature and family and all the human-made things, you can still find thousands of people who definitely are unhappy. In the developed countries you can find very lucky circumstance of having both God-given and man-made things. Nevertheless majority of people there are unhappy. In the developing countries, where for millions we have a real scarcity of even basic needs, people seem to be happy. There are some people who are engaged in difficult duties and in warfare, and even incarcerated in prisons, and are yet happy! We now have simply just discussed the elements of happiness. Thousands of people have them, even so they are unhappy. There are countless others who don’t have them, but they are happy!

You would probably recognize that the mere availability and abundance of God given and human-made things just isn't enough. There is something else that ought to be right to be happy. Not surprisingly, it is our mind that have to have right attitude towards and capacity to be happy.

Milton in Paradise Lost states that,

'The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. '

One can give different examples of how mind can affect our body::

- Mike's dog starts salivating at the sound of the bell with no food in view.
- If we are tense we all often get headache, backache, and spondylitis, etc.
- Heart attacks are directly associated with worry and tension.
- Appropriate mental attitude helps in curing many bodily maladies.
- Simply by self-talk, motivation, and positive attitude we can turn out to be happy and successful.
- Through hypnosis you can have command over another person’s mind and body.
- Through meditation you can have a healthy body and extra sensory abilities.

Mind has extra-ordinary powers and as far as happiness is concerned it has the supreme power. We should, therefore, have a positive attitude towards life. Rather than focusing on bad things in life and people, we have to concentrate on redeeming features in them. We must not keep on thinking about earlier failures and bad experiences but be motivated by our previous achievement and great experiences. In the same way, we should not be unduly stressed concerning future as our anxiety is not going to have a positive effect, but we should plan and work hard for the future.

In whatever circumstances you are, you can never have total lack of God-given and man-made happiness. You cannot completely take away nature from somebody; you cannot take away all man-made things from somebody. Although everything is taken, one’s family and friends are there. One’s precious body is there. And, even if you chain somebody securely in a dungeon, one’s mind is free. One is free to be happy in one’s mind! Mind is difficult to be mastered by oneself, but it is impossible to be vanquished by anybody, any authority, or whatever conditions or situations.

Abraham Lincoln has beautifully expressed it: “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. ”

BE HAPPY!