Are we happy with our lives?

Are you aware that there is a day called international day of happiness?

Every year all over the world March 20 is celebrated as the international day of happiness since the year 2013 when it was first started. It is a day which is designated by the United Nation (UN) to attempt to measure the “importance of happiness in people’s life”.

UN also releases a report called ‘World Happiness Report’ which measures the rank of happiest countries to the unhappiest ones. According to the World happiness report 2021 out of 149 countries, Finland topped the index for the fourth consecutive time to emerge as the world happiest country. While Afghanistan is the world’s unhappiest country. Our neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh and China scored 105^th, 101th and 84^th ranks respectively.

Now the obvious question, how did we Indians fare in the index?

We must rank probably under 100 would be the answer that my optimistic self would say.

In reality, India ranked at a rank of 139 out of 149 countries in terms of happiness index.

Surprise?

Well, it shouldn’t be one. In fact with each passing year, India has been falling from the index with being ranked 117 in the year 2015 to 139 in the year 2021.

Now, where do we stand in all this-

Everyone cannot be happy all the time. We all have our fair shares of bad days and the days which makes us feel unhappy. But do you feel that our rank in the recent world happiness report is justifiable?

On looking for the causes for the unhappiness in India, I came across many reasons be it our GDP per capita income, healthy life expectancy, dissatisfaction with law and order, unable to attain comfort and so on. All these external causes were taking a toll on our inner peace and sanity. As a consequence, the mental health of the population especially young adults is on the decline.

Some tips to ensure that you could spend a few more days happier-

1. Understand that things are not always in our control. Accept that sometimes we cannot change the outcome of a situation and move on.
2. Acknowledge that every day is not the same. Some days are good while other days are not so much. It is perfectly alright to feel under the weather.
3. Sometimes it helps to follow the ‘glass-half-full approach’ and look at certain situations from a positive light.
4. Try to find joy in the little moments of life. What if you had a bad day at work? Head over and have ice cream. Celebrate and enjoy even the most ordinary things.
5. Spend time with those who make you feel good and happy. There are some situations where you cannot but try to surround yourself with those who are good for your mental health.
6.  Follow your passion. Wanted to learn a new language or brush up on your artistic skills but couldn’t? Now maybe a good time to think back on all those things you are passionate about.
7. Ask for help when you need it. We often tend to not take help until it is too late or until we reach our threshold. But knowing yourself and openly asking for support and comfort will help us in the long run.
8. Be kind to yourself. We are sometimes our worst critic and we tend to pull ourselves down if we make a mistake. Instead, acknowledge and own your mistake and then learn from it. Haven’t you heard? To err is to be human.
9. Do not over expect things. I can say from my experiences that when we expect too many things from people we are often left disappointed. So it helps to keep our expectations realistic to avoid being unhappy, both from the people and the situations.

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