How can we be happier ?

02 Feb 2022

I am a morning coffee person. I like to take my coffee in the morning, enjoy the smell of it and even the warm feeling of it in my hand.

Recently, I travelled to Bangladesh to visit my family and friends. It was a fantastic feeling to see them all after a long time. Yet, I felt I was missing something. Soon I realised it was my morning coffee. So, I looked for a café in every street corner I possibly could that sells good quality coffee.

Enjoying the smell of coffee and the warm feeling of the cup is quite a tiny little thing – still it provided me immense joy in my day-to-day life.

"If we build a variety of more small pleasures each day, we increase our resilience." said Dr Kozlowski, a specialist in the research field of pleasure and emotional intelligence. A new national Survey in Australia led by Dr Kozlowski wants to know about small pleasures that bring you joy. Researchers in recent days are realising the benefits of practising the habit of finding small joys.

They believe, smaller joys can lower rates of depression and anxiety, increase immunity and even longevity.

The all-time great, Rabindranath Tagore (an Indian poet) realised the above quite a while ago. I quote from one of his poems (an approximate translation)

“I have travelled for many days, over many miles

Having spent a lot of wealth travelling around many countries

Went to see the mountains, went to see the Indus

Yet, I missed out looking at a small droplet of dew on a paddy leaf

Just two steps away from my home.”

There are many sources of joy around us. Specifically, mother nature has bestowed us with abundant opportunities of finding joy.

A small walk by the side of a lake.

Enjoying the sunrise and/or seeing the plants grow.

None of the above cost much yet provides profound benefits to our health.

However, some of the world’s smartest people are going too far and spending a lot of money to find joy.

Elon Musk wants to go to Marsh to settle down ...

Mark Zuckerberg is investing heavily in metaverse where you will be able to find joy in digital form.

Maybe finding happiness does not have to be that complicated, we can find it in tiny little matters in our everyday life, inside or only two steps away from our home.

Photo by Chevanon Photography

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Sabbir Ahmed

Sabbir Ahmed is the founder of Comprosition Pty Ltd. He is also an accomplished technology consultant with more than 17 years of experience in business applications. Sabbir has worked as a development architect across many large organizations in Australia. He is also an author with a deep interest in lifestyle, health and art. Sabbir acquired his Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology from Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia in 2002.