“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts”, Marcus Aurelius
In my university, there was a person who’s mere sight gave me a headache. Let’s call him Nate. He would simply seat himself uninvited at a table and start ranting about anything and everything. Just nonstop complaining and negativity. I tried to avoid him as much as possible. One day, I was observing him from a distance and it suddenly occurred to me that he was the unhappiest person in the crowded cafeteria. His body language just spoke of misery.
I shared my observation with my friends and they agreed. It just happened that I was taking a course in sociology and one of the assignment was to come up with a set of questions on a topic and then get people to fill it. I created a questionnaire with two parts. Part one allowed people to complain or not complain about a list of concerns. The second part measured their happiness. It turns out that there is a correlation between negativity and happiness. People who have positive thoughts about other things, people, and organizations tend to be happier. People who have negative thoughts tend to be unhappy.
Our thoughts are not facts. Thoughts are our interpretations of the data we collect from our senses. The good news is that you can change the way you interpret something. One day before an exam, a classmate was handing out small packets of chocolate and wishing everyone good luck on the exam. She thought it would be nice to do something small to make us feel less stressed before a difficult exam. Then Nate walked in and refused her chocolate. Then he came up with the most absurd theories of why she was handing out chocolate. You are giving away expired rotten candy from Halloween. You want us all to get sick flunk the exam so that you can pass with the curve. Some people can find negativity, even in an act of kindness. All he was doing was pushing away every chance of joy and happiness. Such a miserable way to live!
If you want to be happy, think positive thought and shove aside negative thoughts. Improve the quality of your thoughts.