My Pursuit of Happiness

I’ve read a lot about happiness and applied what I learnt to my life. Today I’m going to share what worked for me to have constant joy, in the hope that some of it might work for you as well. However, you will have to put your own music to my words to get your happiness.

Humans are 3-part beings and to address any human quotient one has to address all the three parts - Body, Mind and Spirit! So, throughout this article all these have been addressed somewhere.

Let’s see what a 4th Century BC philosopher Zhuangzi had to say-

“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”

In keeping with this “no striving” I have developed an attitude of accepting things as they are if I cannot change them. For example, if a flight is 5 hours late and there is no alternative, I’ll enjoy the airport restaurants and shops and happily pass my time. I don’t fret about it nor do I dwell on it later because the past is gone and I don’t believe that I am a victim of the past! This helps to reduce the secretion of the hormone Cortisol which is a downer!

However, I believe you have to strive daily for a DOSE of the high of happiness, since we live in a human body which triggers hormones that have to reach the brain through a very complex system for you to actually feel happy. Here’s how I get this daily DOSE!

A. The D in the dose stands for Dopamine - The reward chemical. For this:

1. I eat tasty vegetarian protein rich food and desserts that support the transport of happiness hormones and take supplements for vitamin B12 and vitamin D3 that are also important for happiness.
2. Achieving a daily goal in a word game gives me immense happiness when I complete it.
3. I have To-Do lists and completing tasks in them and actually ticking off items gives me happiness.
4. For self care, I take a daily bath as soon as I wake up to bring me happiness in the morning.

B. The O of DOSE stands for Oxytocin - The Love Hormone. For this:

1. I regularly socialise with classmates and friends. It’s interesting that the 80-year Grant study at Harvard University found that being in communities was the key to a fulfilling long life.
2. I hug friends when I meet them.
3. I love to pet a cute dog breed Shih Tzu and it is very satisfying.
4. I get a helpers high by selflessly doing things for people.

C. The S in DOSE is for Serotonin - The Mood Elevator. For this:

1. I try to spend 10-20 minutes in the sun. It also helps in getting vitamin D.
2. I look at trees and listen to birds chirp consciously to be with nature.
3. For mindfulness I try to pay attention to what I’m doing.
4. I’ve been doing daily transcendental meditation (TM) for over 25 years along with breathing techniques such as Sundarshan Kriya of The Art of Living. These work like shock absorbers for me.

D. The E in DOSE is for Endorphins - The Pain Killer. For this:

1. I exercise, by walking daily for 45 minutes and every alternate day do muscle strength training with dumb bells and stretch bands.
2. Music makes me high especially a genre called Deep House and I have my whole house filled with music almost everyday for happiness.
3. I watch short films and documentaries on YouTube.
4. A few friends make me laugh often and I’m fortunate for that.

So that’s my daily life story and A DOSE that keeps me happy everyday.

A for Acceptance

D for Dopamine

O for Oxytocin

S for Serotonin

E for Endorphins

As you may observe, all these habits can be learnt and applied easily to your life and it’s almost like skill training! You can choose your own activities to apply to your life for your happiness.

So here’s wishing you joy everyday because it’s easier to laugh than to cry!

Life is delicious and adventurous, so just enjoy it!!!

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Special guest Ajit Dass joins the conversation, bringing insightful perspectives while exploring and comparing the messages from God: An Autobiography and Conversations with God.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin engages Ajit in a thought-provoking discussion about the depth of life experiences, the importance of acceptance, and the pursuit of one's best self, a harmony of personal growth and profound spiritual insights.

This discussion unravels the nuances of divinely guided purposes and destiny with compelling wisdom on becoming your best self, the pitfalls of sin, pursuing a higher self, and the delicate balance between attachment and non-attachment. Gain valuable perspectives on desires and fulfillment and discover the transformative power of balancing spiritual principles with practical self-help approaches.

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Life Skills for Employability

Some attitudes and qualities, collectively called Life Skills, infuse your thoughts and actions with Spirit, leading to you becoming more likely for selection by educational institutions and employers. 

Life Skills are about living with your true nature. We live in a dual world of light and darkness. The true nature of the sun is light and warmth but sometimes clouds cover it and its true nature is not exhibited. Similarly, humans too have a true nature of light and warmth and we often close our mind and heart thereby being unable to exhibit our core qualities and the attitudes that emanate from it.

Closing  your heart and mind to the light of Spirit can lead to burnout. I am going to enumerate the attitudes and qualities to not have and to have, and help you to open yourself up to your true nature.

Attitudes and qualities not to have

1. Know it all superior attitude: This is a sure failure as you are not willing to be a continuous learner. There is always something you do not know so why have a condescending superior attitude about yourself. Be willing to listen and don’t try to always prove others wrong or prove yourself right.

2. Loser attitude or I’m not good enough attitude: There could be many reasons for this from your childhood onwards. The fact is that you are unique just like each of the five fingers in your hand are unique. All five are needed when you want to pick up a heavy load. You are awesome.

3. Cursing attitude: Don’t feel jealous of people who you think have a better life than you. Each human being has challenges and if you get a close look at their lives you will find out that the rich person who moves around in a Mercedes may have a health challenge and needs dialysis every week! So don’t curse those who you think are well off. It just spreads negative energy around which will affect you as well.

4. Fear: Fear comes from insecurities but your true nature is one of complete security. You can reach a state of security with meditation which will then make you more confident too. Caution is okay to protect yourself but fear inhibits your performance.

Attitudes and qualities to have

1. Commitment: Do only that which interests you otherwise you will not have commitment and will not be consistently working on something to take it to its completion. Employers do not want people who leave things half done. They want you to do whatever it takes to achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

2. Work-Life Balance: Set aside time for what you love to do - time with family, hobbies, a larger cause which is selfless such as environment, health & wellness, time with community, social work etc. If you don’t do this, your performance will go down after a stretch of constantly working on something and may lead to stress and burnout.

3. Responsibility: Be willing to take responsibility for jobs tasked to you or if not willing, say outright what help you need to be able to do it. Taking responsibility means looking into all aspects of a job and nurturing a job role till you are assigned to it. It’s like taking care of a family member. You cannot suddenly leave your grandmother alone and go for a holiday if you have taken responsibility to look after her. Employers want you to be responsible for Objectives & Key Results (OKRs).

4. Acceptance: There are times when you don’t like a colleague and if it weighs on you it will get you down. Accept people as they are unless they have asked you to change them. Because a person is a particular way you can know who and what you are by comparison. Acceptance is the single most important life skill and attitude that will add to a state of constant happiness.

5. Cheerfulness: Have you ever seen a grumpy person successful in life? A seed for success is cheerfulness and a happy attitude. Take things lightly or with humour. If you pronounce a word wrong just laugh at it and move on.

6. Appreciation: This is a great way to motivate team members and colleagues. It’s a good idea to acknowledge and appreciate work that pleased you. Also if you don’t like what someone has done don’t call out the person, but call out the work. You can say “the work is not up to the mark” and not, “you are not up to the mark”.

7. Integrity: This is all about doing what’s right in a circumstance when no one is looking. Your inner conscience knows very well what’s wrong so please do not do what’s not right. It’s wrong to steal. It’s wrong to claim expenses based on false bills or inflated bills. For long term rewards you have to be truthful.

8. Awareness: Do you know that Awareness is to be keenly observant of-

i) What is so and why?

ii) What can change it and why?

iii) What are the probable outcomes of your choices?

Curiosity to know these answers will make you more aware and therefore more mature and rounded. You can begin by asking questions about your health or about the health of the planet. Ex. A Disease / Pollution.

9. Empathy and Helpfulness: Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference. You need to place yourself in another's position to know what they may be going through. But just empathy is not enough. You need to give a helping hand too for your empathy to become useful. Helping selflessly gives a helpers high with Serotonin which prevents burnout.

10. Gratitude: An attitude of gratitude keeps you centred and away from negative feelings. Being grateful for what you have creates abundance. Being grateful to people for what they have done for you brings more help to you. Right now, I am grateful to you for reading this article. Are you grateful for something today?

Imbibe these qualities into your daily life. The best way to do it is to learn some kind of meditation and physical exercise which will help the dark clouds that are hiding your true light, to get scattered away.

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The Painting of Life

1. Wholeness: All colors mixed together make up White Light, which is a symbol of Wholeness! For White Light to know and experience itself, darkness and all the colors inside white are required. Similarly, for Wholeness to know Itself all shades and colors of life are required. Dark shades highlight the light shades and are not BAD.



2. The Process: Life is a PROCESS of experiencing all the shades and colors in it one by one. When all have been experienced you fully know what White Light is .. You become what you already are- Wholeness! So, life is not a battle to be won nor is it a pot of gold to acquire! Don’t Struggle nor EXPECT to- Win and Get Particular Results or Returns on Investment! It is in NOT STRUGGLING that the process proceeds freely!!!



3. The Creators: The Paint Brushes of life are Thoughts, Words and Deeds. They bring forth all the shades and colors into your life. They create the outcomes of your life. Pay Attention to what you think, say and do so that you don’t unknowingly create outcomes which you call “undesired”.



4. Judgement: DO NOT JUDGE the shade or color of Characters, Places and Events to be BAD or GOOD because all of them just lead up to the realization of Wholeness symbolized as White Light. It's best to OBSERVE a color as it is to know more accurately Who You Are with respect to it. Black is simply black! Always remember that all shades and colors have been painted by you at some level- conscious, subconscious, super conscious either collectively or individually, so either accept them or accept responsibility to change them. Whatever color you color someone with, that color will be reflected to you by them. So, if you paint someone black they will appear to do black to you! Judging anything as Bad is the cause of suffering! Remove Judgment and suffering disappears even from something causing pain!



5. Choosing: Instead of Judging, look at what shades and colors you are Unhappy and Happy with in your life Now and everyday. If you are not happy with some, Decide to Change them. Desire and Choose the shades and colors You are most Passionate about and declare your newness to the world without hesitation. Whenever these shades and colours start to cause unhappiness, change them again! DON’T REJECT the shades and colors you have moved on from or you will fail to realize yourself as Wholeness! Let them be a part of your painting.



6. Acceptance: DON’T REJECT people, places and events because this too will make you incomplete.  ACCEPT all that you have rejected. Include them in your painting. Then you will re-member all that was dismembered and you will remember that you are Wholeness! This is Remembrance of Wholeness which some call as the Remembrance of God! This also Empowers you to Heal all that was rejected! You need not engage in interaction with all that is accepted. For instance, you can agree to disagree.



7. Moving On: Don’t keep coming back to the same shades and colors because then you are revolving whereas the purpose of life is to keep evolving. Addiction to a desire becomes a need which requires someone to fix it to get you out of it so that you can evolve.



8. Relationships: We realize Who We Are, what color we are through our relationship with others, with relationship to their shades and colors. So, don’t try to change the shades and colors of others as they are serving you to know yourself. Let Everyone Be As They Are and use your relationship with them to Decide, Know and Experience Who You Are! If they decide to change, you can at most guide them in their decision.


Become an artist of life and make your painting beautiful and color-full!!!

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