10 Life lessons for happpiness

As we grow older we become more aware about our life and there comes the important life lessons.  Here are a few that I learnt in order to be more happy and content.

1. Accept yourself. It is very important to accept yourself because by accepting yourself you can slowly learn to accept the whole world and life becomes quite easy. We must accept our uniqueness with all the weakness and strength.  It will attract the right kind of people around you and you will not be in people-pleasing mode all the time which will save you a lot of mental energy. Just be yourself and explore your uniqueness and enjoy your life.

2. Accept everything. Once you master the skill of accepting yourself, next step is to accept everything around you; each person, situation and everything around it. No matter how much you want your boss to be nice to you or you want your in-laws to be kind to you, or you want your partner to understand you or your children to listen to you, there will be time when they won't. So instead of whining and wasting time and energy you can focus on managing the problem and move on just by accepting the situation.  As time goes by people change but in the meantime, just hold on and stay calm.

3. Respect, value and take care of yourself. It is very important to take care of yourself in today's world. If you can't take care of yourself you will never be able to help anyone else. By taking care of yourself you save lots of problems later in life and also set a good example for children. By putting yourself first by taking care of yourself you can help other people because they don't have to take care of you and they can focus on their life without worries. If you are struggling with your own health, you cannot help your family when they need you. Also have a ground for your belief, principles and values, no matter how hard the situations are. It gives you firm ground for yourself and makes you confident. Patience and perseverance always pays.

4. Value relationships. Always acknowledge random act of kindness. It improves relations dramatically. Say thank you to your spouse when he accompanies you in a doctor's visit or say thank you to your child when he gets you a glass of water after a hard long day. Tell them how much you love them. You will thank yourself in future that you did it because life is too fast to realise that in no time your toddler is going to leave the house for university or spouse having health problems or parents ageing and leaving us forever.

5. Have a purpose in life. Life without purpose is like road without direction. You can go on and on without reaching anywhere. People who have purpose in life are always motivated, happy and energetic. Always find your purpose in life and enjoy it. It gives immense satisfaction and fulfilment.

6. Have faith or belief. Having belief or faith makes you stronger and gives you power to withstand difficulties in life and keeps you firm on the ground. Faith in either God, supreme power or higher power gives you directions in the event of disaster. Even a small ritual or simple meditation is all that takes to change life forever.

7. Listen to your soul. Always listen to your soul for purpose or direction in life. It also guides you in many other ways when mind is not able to decide properly. The deep, sometimes weak, sound always tells you what is right and what is wrong. You just have to tune into it. Meditation is the best way to listen to your soul. All your answers are within so meditate and get all your questions answered.

8. Say NO to abuse. This is a bit serious but very important point. Always identify, understand, protest and stop abuse. It is quite surprising to find that abuse is far too common in this world. We may be putting up with decades of abuse and manipulations that we don’t even realise so it is vital that you understand and protect yourself against abuse. The modern life can get the worst out of people so it is important to stop because a bullied becomes a bully and the saga continues and you don’t want to continue the saga.  Abuse depletes your soul’s energy and makes you weak so you must stop it.

9. Forgive. It is very important to forgive people whoever has done any damage to your mind, body or soul. It is very hard to do because their actions made you very bitter but the only way to move ahead in life is to forgive. It liberates you. It also does not mean that you have to take them back in your life and get betrayed again. It just means that they can’t harm you anymore.

10. Gratitude. No matter what happens in life there is always something to cherish and celebrate. Gratitude helps to calm down the nerves and enhance our ability to think clearly when everything seems very difficult. Simple act of writing down all positive experience calms down the mind immediately and makes us feel positive. It also attracts abundance in life because you are focusing on positive aspects and your mind is calm.

As life goes on, I am still learning and I am quite surprised how much more is still to be discovered.