Practicing happiness… the most useful exercise of all!
If you look around in crowded places, you will find that the majority of people do not look happy and smiles are becoming rarer and rarer. You will tell me in such times what you expect. And yet… In such times we need as much positive energy and a smile as we can. Because only in this way we will exorcise the problems, everything negative, we will face the difficulties and we will attract even more smiles and happy moments. And that can happen if we decide to be happy and practice it. So practice happiness. The most useful exercise of all.
As unthinkable as this may seem to some of us, our brain has its own entity and its own “way of thinking.” So if you are determined to be happy from now on and you want to do something about it, then try what you can to feel happier and happier. Do not repeat bad things that happened and avoid as much as you can this insistence that characterizes a large portion of people to complain and whine about the “evil that happened to us”. When a food irritates us or causes poisoning, we avoid it without a second thought. So why not do the same with all those unpleasant and negative things that poison our “inside” and our daily life?
Practice happiness then. The next time you want to reproduce a negative thought, that you want to share a bad feeling or report something unpleasant that happened to you, resist. And say something pleasant. Even if you have to do it by force.
The result will amaze you. The explanation for this is both simple and scientifically substantiated.
The more our brain receives messages that we feel good, the more it will “reward” us by keeping us in this state of happiness and the more it will help us to be happy. So we create a positive cycle, a constant supply and exchange of happiness and joy in our body and mind that will benefit us, even reaching the point of strengthening our defence system.
Our thoughts are responsible for the final shaping of our character, as adults (not exclusively, of course), but also for the way we manifest and function personally, as each of our thoughts releases chemicals through our brain. Such substances are serotonin and dopamine. Elevated serotonin levels in our body make us feel happy and often successful. Above all, then, happy thoughts, positive coping and positive energy, as mentioned, cause the secretion of serotonin, for our general benefit. Dopamine, which is characterized as the “sister” of serotonin and transmits messages from one nerve cell to another, thus causing euphoria and satisfaction, is also responsible for many positive situations.
And one last thing… every time you experience a state of happiness, or when you smile and think or do something pleasant, you will notice that more and more positive events will happen around you.
And remember that even our innermost thoughts are reflected in our external actions. And that all the radical changes in our lives are the consequence of the relative change in our way of thinking.
So it is worthwhile to practice happiness…Because we all deserve it.
Irene Damanaki
Yoga Educator
