Life in action, at a traffic junction

You often experience the best learning incidentally.

Often while looking around to find ‘Similarities’ You discover ‘Laws’.
Finding Similarities is great fun. And finding Laws, great value.
And where is more value than learning the Laws of life—incidentally.

So are Laws of Life floating around You? Waiting to be discovered by You…
For if You discover the Law, You possess the best knowledge on action (what to do), emotion (how to feel), Happiness (its value).

From where You learn the Law is entirely up to You. But there are of course pointers available to You. Next time You are waiting at the Traffic Junction You have some great laws of Life to decipher. Like:

“You often have to give way to others in life. For the better. You may stop in life briefly, but only to move forward again. With a new vigor. And when life forces You to stop for a while, You have an opportunity to reflect. For discovering its Laws. For the next spell to be even greater.”

— © Happiness Incorporated !

Happiness is the base, not a canopy

W hen it comes to staying Happy , there is an unfailing principle—

' To Act towards Happiness is to Achieve it'.



'Act' is not any physical action here.

'Act' implies a resolution in You, by You, for You.



A resolute You who has decided to value Happiness. And this is the starting point.



And then occurs a transformation of a (mere) desire in You to be Happy.

Transformation of a mere desire into a state where Happiness really becomes an accomplishment in your life .

An accomplishment w hen, to You, Happiness is no longer a state where tensions are absent. It is a base on top of which every other act, thought, emotion rests. When Happiness is the base, not a canopy, You have accomplished Happiness .



— © Happiness Incorporated !

Value what You feel

Life is somehow calling You to live it to the fullest.

And its ways are strange indeed. At times,
Calling You through the gorgeous sight of a winter sun;
Whispering it to You through the breeze that brushes past;
Reminding through the smile that You bring on somebody's face and changes her world completely for that precious moment.

Most unhappiness results from overlooking the beauty in things around You. Small things that are simply beautiful if You realize. These are private, intense, and unfailing paths to your Happiness. And this is not a 'justification'- a reason 'invented' for You to feel Happy.

Most unhappy are those amongst us who skip such 'moments' to anticipate some kind of a grand finale to their Happiness pursuit - some strange predestined event that one day will come and will usher in unimaginable quantity of Happiness in their lives. (The only possible exaggeration in this statement being that most of us don't have ONE such event, but instead a few such events).

To Do: Anticipate great events. It is good. But do not make Happiness wait until the arrival of 'big' events. Let the big ones just be add-ons, to the large quantity of Happiness You have gathered through living each moment, every day.

— © Happiness Incorporated !

Being Confident is a cakewalk if You can be Happy

Today is the day to revitalize and charge Yourself up. To begin afresh on learning to act towards Happiness. To work towards it.

‘The Happiness Dose’ new volume is all Yours today. But that’s not the reason You need to celebrate. The celebration of Happiness and Life should need no reason. Never try to find a reason for being Happy. Just be it.

We start-off with a fresh set of pointers to Your Happiness this week. With what You aptly helped us name- ’The Happiness Dose’.

The Dose: Being Confident is a cakewalk if You can be Happy

You perhaps simply can not believe (at this moment) that there is a correlation between being Happy on one hand and being Confident on the other. How can they be? Well, they don’t seem to until You do a small exercise. Visualize people You think are confident with what they do (please spare the arrogant ones). Pause. Now independently think of those who seem to be Happy doing what they do. Period.

If the world hasn’t changed too rapidly since we last experimented with this (when we found that these two sets of persons are almost the same), then You would want to know further.

Your confidence level and Your Happiness levels are closely related.
And it’s more overarching (the dependence of the two) than You probably realized ever. Your confidence in a nervous board room discussion (do we mention ‘at work’) may be originating in the Happiness You grab at home. Through your spouse, children, friends.

In case You experiment with it (and You should explore) You should find that it indeed works this way. And as with most things in life, the law exists: You use it or not doesn’t make a difference to the Law. But it makes a difference to those who remember to utilize the Law.

The secret of exploiting this Law is: the proverbial ‘green pasture’, which we have been told, ‘always lies on the other side’, no longer holds true for You. From now on, all the green pastures are right beneath Your feet- where you are placed!

A happy person (Yes, there are such persons... Yes, within this species) finds it smooth and easy to relate to the world. Relate to the situation she is into. Relate to her surroundings and challenges. Be these personal or professional.

This makes a person much more confident. Confident enough to fight a situation, confident enough to be what she is in the face of a victory and a loss.

Suppose you go to a friend's place. You meet many people there. Few you know & others you are meeting for the first time. How do you let out your best in such a situation? Are you anxious, do you portray yourself as something you are not, or do you do 'measured' talking fearing others?

All of this would depend on what you have been thinking, what you have been practicing, what you have been doing with your life, with your days and with your Happiness levels everyday.

Yes, if you have been thinking, practicing & living Happiness in any aspect of your Life, then there is only one way you can perform. The behavior of yours is clearly in one direction- effusing confidence. The confident attitude is because of the peaceful & calm state of your being which allows you to feel at home in the moment. Rest assured, you are so much in the moment that you are just yourself. This being yourself makes you confident.

How easy it is now to see the correlation. Which most of us miss out on.

Looking back You realize that all those moments when you felt most confident about yourself, You were most happy as well.

But You would do justice to your confidence levels only if You can turn such moments into days, and days into a lifetime.

— © Happiness Incorporated !

Happiness- An Outcome of being true to yourself

The Dose: Happiness- An Outcome of being true to yourself


At HI !, we are all set to begin afresh on learning to act towards Happiness. 'The Happiness Dose' next volume is ready to be floated.

Yet Happiness is not to be hurried. So, today we remind ourselves of something rather impor­tant before we start-off with the new volume of pointers to Your Happiness.

To remind ourselves, perhaps, of the most important ingredient of Happiness. The one ingredi­ent to Happiness that You may overlook easily - 'You being true to Yourself'. By far, known to be the most significant determinant of Your lasting Happiness.

The Dose 7 Revisited : Happiness- An Outcome of being true to yourself

Here's an acid test to find how You can differentiate between being true and not-being-true to Yourself.

We take up a real-life situation to throw tons of light on the test. A 'close' friend requests You. This request is a simple one where she needs Your time for something important for her. Let's see two typical responses of human beings (and who are others to tag any one to You. That's your take always !)

Response 1: " I don't have time today. I refuse her. She will feel dejected for sure. But she will at least not be falsely dependent on me. She and her work will not suffer by my rejec­tion. "

Response 2: " Oh God. She has been such a 'good' friend. What will she think of me if I re­fuse. But why did she ask me for my time today . Can't she see! I have none. She could have asked me yesterday. It would have saved me this embarrassment of saying no. What will she think of me now. Let me promise now. Later I can say a ' sorry' and give her some reason."

Response 2 being particularly longer is no co-incidence. All good things (that last) in life are simple and short . When You choose to remain true to Yourself , what you do is a confident, definitive behavior. You don't fool around, You don't deceive. And You don't feel like deceiving, it comes naturally. Because You know You will have to keep it very very complex otherwise and it's You who will get stuck in Life with such deceptive complexities . And Happiness indeed is in being simple to Yourself. Being what You are and letting others know what you are. For then, those who truly love You will matter, not the one's who make You fool around - harming Your own inner-confidence. Others will simply loose their power to affect You negatively .

In innovative terms: "You may fool Happiness into visiting You once in a while. But without You being true to yourself, Happiness somehow knows it's got to leave, pretty quickly."

— © Happiness Incorporated !

Taking Decisions- Your Stability Matters

The Dose: Taking Decisions- Your Stability Matters


We continue review ing the progress towards Happiness. It pays to review.

Not in the least for 'learning' more on The Doses. The Dose is just a pointer.

But only to continuously remind oneself - there are simple actions one can take that lead to great volume of Happiness.

The Dose points to such simple actions You can consider acting on in Your Life — Life as You live it— with its routine, rigor and pleasure. In all hues and in all colors. In attempting this continuity, a review benefits.


The Dose 6 Revisited: Stability determines the ' better' among your D ecision alternatives

Decision making—An art or A science? Well, it may be any or both. But to many it seems like sheer Magic. And Magic in more than one way. Magic because whatever You decide there is often dissatisfaction at the end. Magic because 'the other' guy always seems to take it better than You do. Or at least she seems more confident after choosing her alternative, while You doubt yours. Magic because You somehow always end up wishing a re-chance. A second chance to somehow make a 'better one' this time. Magic because a re-chance is a rare occurrence.

Objectivity plays a role. Often, more objectively taken decisions turn out to be better. But there are other factors. The chance issue, the issue of unforeseen circumstances, the missing information issue. The list is endless. Uncertainty bugs. But You need to decide anyhow. So what's the best strategy?

Given this, Stability has a great value in letting You take optimal decisions. Stability in You. Stability - a state where You are under control. You are optimally excited about the problem You have to decide on. Not more, not less. Your thoughts, your logical faculties, your ability-set all work in harmony.

Your state of mind is matched to meet the challenge. You are putting Your best foot forward. You neither act great nor feel inferior, You are simply being yourself. In not trying to be any greater (or inferior) than You actually are, You are allowing yourself the freedom to decide rationally. You are safe from anxiety that strikes in the last hour and kills your deserved prize.

The Stability Principle advises you to go for the alternative that seems the best in your stable states of mind. And of course, since You never can predict when You may have to take impor­tant decisions, it pays to employ the Stability principle in Your daily life.



— Happiness Incorporated !

Verbal Harmlessness - Your Tribute to Relationships

The Dose: Verbally Harmless...are You?


Your being regular with The Dose now (re) introduces You to the next good thing in Life. ' Reintroduce' because this is of course a revisit to some good stuff learned along the way, one we have been talking about.

Ways You can act in and fill your life with Happiness. Or, preferably the other way round.

Acting, as You are on many fronts in life, do all along keep wondering on "Know, Act, See" - the Basic Fundament (to Happiness??)

The Dose is just the "know" part. It may even be less—at just being a "pointer" to the process of dis­covering, knowing about the simple possibilities of staying Happy.



You surely, today or tomorrow, are going to act towards staying Happy. Of course, the Happiness Desiring Machine works too hard to desire Happiness from your so many every-days. But poor is its delivery indeed for everyone not just You.



Can You act now? Let's turn to an opportunity to Act towards Happiness. Let's learn to act on Verbal Harmlessness.

The Dose 5: Verbal Harmlessness & Your Relationships - Life's quality revolves around the rela­tionships that you weave. Both- relations You choose to enter into and relationships You are born into.

Verbal Harmlessness is a difficult phrase but a simple act. An act that takes You a step for­ward towards a satisfying relationship. The one act that differentiates 'commitment' from 'contract' in all your relations.

Verbal Harmlessness—simply allowing the anger to subside (it's not difficult. Can you count till 10, in around 10 seconds...then come on you can master-manage your anger), the hurt-words to disappear, letting negativity dissolve before being effused out on your loved ones.

Inflicting pain through revenge has no place in the most beautiful of your possessions—your loved ones. That is, in case of a misunderstanding, You offer your maturity and empathy– not your revenge. And You do it not for "the other" but for Yourself. Coz it's [You]r relationship. You don't hurt back. You remain Verbally Harmless– believing in the wisdom of the moment and strength of [You]r relation.

The mere reduction of (often) unconscious, anger-generated, hurt-based responses acts as a tribute from you, as an equal participant in any relationship.

And then relations become satisfying.

Did we emphasize enough? To Act is to Achieve.



— Happiness Incorporated !