What Is Happiness
Before I started writing this part of the website, I thought I would do some research on the definition of happiness. Searching on-line, I found many different explanations of the state of happiness. There have also been attempts to rank the countries of the world in order of happiness, although different surveys bring up different results.
I often like to listen to music when I'm working as I find it helps stimulate the creative part of my brain, and this time I thought I would search for happiness on my favorite music streaming website, and found loads of different playlists full of different songs and music compositions, each giving a different message.
My conclusion is that what is important is not someone else's definition of what happiness is, but in reality it is my own feelings which may change from time to time, and over time.
Finding Your Happy Place
Finding personal happiness may be easy, difficult, or somewhere in between. Most people will experience different levels of happiness at different times and over time. Fluctuations in the amount of happiness experienced is to be expected, and genuinely increasing happiness helps to recognise and appreciate it more.
Many people will be able to work to achieve happiness on their own with a small amount of information and guidance. If you find yourself in a particularly dark place, it may be time to seek help from a qualified health professional who is able to work with an agreed set of goals within a solution focused structure.
I work from the Human Givens perspective and approach to help people identify the physical and emotional needs that contribute to positive levels of emotional well-being.
Happiness Experts
Whether you have been searching for help to increase you happiness, or whether you have just been approached by someone making promises to enrich your life with more happiness, it is important to be able to distinguish between the helpful and the unhelpful. At their best, unhelpful experts may be genuine in their desire to help, although misguided in their approach. At their worst they may be more interested in making money charging exorbitant fees, than actually helping.
In my work as a therapist, I met some people who had become locked into lengthy unhealthy relationships with their therapist, counsellor, or coach sometimes for several years without experiencing any useful improvement in their life. Be clear about what you want to achieve from help offered to you, and don't be afraid to walk away if it is not working.
