How to Unlock Happiness in Your Life?

Are you unhappy with your salary, your office environment, your partner’s behaviour, your kids for not listening to you? Shivani Misri Sadhoo gives you the key to opening the doors for happiness.

The first thing you should realise is that it’s ‘you’ who is interpreting ‘your’ own condition and making ‘yourself’. First shift your focus from yourself and see external situations the way it is; don’t associate yourself with it and then judge. If you associate yourself with external situations and try to think, you will just get emotions (pain, anger, irritation) and not solutions or ideas. For example, if your organisation lacks efficient human resource management, recognise this problem alone, don’t think by associating ‘yourself’ first, else you will get stuck with the thoughts and emotions like how your co-workers behave with you, how your boss treats you.

Secondly, develop an independent mind. Don’t blindly follow what people say and do. Seek to understand and take the context into account. Ask a lot of ‘why’ questions. Foster the ability to see both sides of an argument. Most people spend their life without questioning why things are the way they are. You have a choice not to do that. For example, if you’re a student and the most obvious thing one would do after finishing 12 boards in science is to sit for IIT and medical. Think whether you really want to be an engineer or a doctor? Don’t just go by what everyone is doing and what everyone likes.

Thirdly, develop a responsible attitude towards your finances. Most people have the

tendency to increase expenditures with increase in their income. This habit is one primary

reason that causes heart diseases and blood pressure issues among Indians. Remember

expenditures are mental shackles they never let your mind get free. As much as possible, try to keep your expenditures on check, avoid temptations to purchase on loans, EMI, credit cards and emphasise more on savings.

About Shivani Misri Sadhoo

Armed with a diploma in counselling and guidance from University of Delhi, Counselling Psychologist, Shivani Misri Sadhoo has been working for a leading NGO which is a crisis intervention centre for people in distress and a suicide helpline. She also has her own venture, Saarthi, through which she gives guidance on many issues. She also attends extensive workshops on marital and relationship counselling, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Counselling Skills from VIMHANS and various other reputed hospitals. Shivani’s mission is to help people find their own solutions. You can write to her at saarthiforlife@gmail.com.