WHAT IS THE COLOUR OF YOUR HAPPINESS ??

I have often heard people say, “I just want to be happy” And I wondered if they do realize what that even means ? Do they really know what they are searching for ? I do not doubt for a minute that they are desirous of being happy, but I am not certain that if they might not recognize happiness in the work stage when it is offered. If you have ever uttered those words or someone you know has uttered them to your hearing then this article will be of benefit to you. So dig in as we explore the various (colours) kinds of happiness.

Sustainable happiness, is one that lasts a long long time, up to decades in some cases and is capable of enduring the rough patches of life, because life will definitely have it’s rough times. On the other hand, happiness that is not sustainable is one that is shortlived and is easily upturned by the storms of life. For example, I was privileged to interact with one patient of mine who was addicted to pentazocine, an injectable opioid analgesic. His addiction got to the point that it ruined his previously beautiful life.

Sama’ila (not his real name) was a very handsome, eloquent and promising staff of the faculty while I was a medical student. We all admired him because he was young and always well dressed. After I qualified as a plastic surgeon I was shocked to meet him in front of my bank at about 7pm one evening and he was begging for money. I had come to make a withdrawal from the ATM and there he was, approaching each of us that had just withdrawn cash. I could not understand how that could happen. It was a typical grace to grass story. A few weeks later he walked into my consulting room with some of the most terrible skin ulcers that I had ever seen and that was when I got to know his full story. He gave me a very interesting response when I asked why he still indulged himself in the habit since it had practically drained him of all his money and left him indebted, his wife had divorced him and left with the children, his health had deteriorated so badly that he now had ulcers on both arms and forearms and the wounds required surgical intervention to heal. Those wounds developed as a complication of his addiction, those were the sites where he regularly administered the injections. The ulcers emitted the most offensive order, were perpetually discharging purulent fluid hindering him from mingling freely in the midst of people. To crown it all his once envious career was now in jeopardy. The response which baffled me, was that he liked the way it made him feel…..taking those injections made him happy.

I was stunned by his response because that is definitely not what I imagined as happiness, at least I knew that this is not the way I would love to enjoy my kind of happiness. The encounter got me thinking, what does happiness really look like ?

According to Brian Tracy, happiness, true has five components. Stable relationships, productive work, financial abundance, sound health and self actualization. Each of these serves as a stimulus to produce a positive emotional response whenever we think about them. Each one can also serve as a back-up or buffer system for our emotional state when we need consolation in the event that one of these components suffers a temporary set back. In this way, recovery to a state of true happiness even after the most traumatizing experiences is prompt and comprehensive.

Happiness could be unbalanced, for instance when an individual pursues one of the components of happiness at the expense and to the exclusion of all others, when such an individual experiences a setback in that single component he or she is likely to suffer depression. Examples abound of individuals who enjoy financial abundance but do not have any stable relationships, some others have a brilliant career that has been built at the expense of their health and other components experiencing setbacks

Balanced happiness takes deliberate effort and persistence, to invest and build in all the components of happiness which include:

FINANCIAL ABUNDANCE

SOUND HEALTH

STABLE VIBRANT RELATIONSHIPS

PRODUCTIVE WORK

SELF ACTUALIZATION

Now that you have been enlightened about what true happiness is, it’s time to make a choice. Do you want a single colour of happiness made of only one or two components or do you desire a full picture made of all the components ? Do you desire sustainable and balanced happiness ? Then it is time to get to work and begin to design and build the kind of happiness you desire. Let it be personal and specific to you, they way you really want to enjoy it.

I conclude by asking again, what is the specification of your happiness ?

I sincerely hope that you have found this write up to be helpful. Your questions and comments are most welcome. I would be excited if you choose to share this article with friends and family members. You can Subscribe to our mailing list for more of such life enhancing articles.

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