By Ahsan
To be or not to be. Said someone famous. What did he mean? That is the question.
Here is what I think William Shakespeare meant when he wrote those famous words. I personally believe he was referring to happiness.
To be happy or not to be happy!
That is a good question because being happy is something we all fall in and out of. When we are happy, we know it, and when we are not, we wish we were. But how and why do we become happy, especially when we are not?
The principle of happiness lies in one thing. Perhaps you will agree that it’s thought.
Your experience of life is felt through the filter of your thoughts!
You don't become happy because things are going your way; instead, you are happy because your thoughts about things are causing you to be happy or not.
To bolster my point, I want to first discuss that thoughts are the seed that gives birth to things in the real world, including your genuine feelings.
Thoughts become things. This is evident when we see that every invention began as a thought before it was brought into practical form.
That is why Steve Jobs will be remembered, for better or worse, as the one responsible for making humanity addicted to their cell phones. It doesn’t matter if those smartphones are made by Apple or Samsung or someone else.
So, not understanding that thoughts create feelings is to ignore a magic bullet that hits the target of happiness every time.
You are only one thought away from happiness or sadness. You are only one thought away from experiencing life in a better way.
If you are feeling blue, try to identify your thoughts and isolate them so you can look at them as an observer. Then, try to give yourself an alternative way of looking at your situation, whether it's circumstances or people that have got you down.
Sometimes we "snap out of it" when we see or hear something that makes our issues look more manageable than they initially feel or appear to be.
For example, if you were to see a homeless mother sitting on a dusty sidewalk of a third-world country playing with her toddler and seeing them giggle, you would likely and instantly appreciate all the abundance and so-called problems you have.
Have you ever heard the expression, "catch that thought"? It comes from the phenomenon that our thoughts are too numerous to quantify, and any one of them can instantly set us off on a chain reaction of other thoughts without us noticing it.
That is why some learned psychologists refer to catching your thoughts as the pause between stimulus and response.
Well, what more can I say about thinking and being happy? A lot I imagine, but for now, remember this:
One thought can make a difference. And here is an excellent idea for you to consider.
What you think about is your reality. What you think about puts you into a state of mind and feeling. If you want to change your state of mind and emotions, become aware of your thoughts.
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