Covid and Happiness
COVID and Happiness can go hand in hand
By
Rakshita
What is happiness? Before establishing a relationship between
happiness and COVID, let’s first try to understand what happiness means.
Happiness is described as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive
well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and
worthwhile.” by Sonja Lyubomirsky in her book ‘The How of Happiness’. Do we
agree with it? Well, that’s subjective, but in a broader sense, yes this is
essentially what happiness could be defined as. So rounding back to our topic,
COVID and happiness can go hand in hand, it is a fair assumption to make that
most of our happiness levels have taken a hit due to COVID and its
repercussions. Now, not all people are affected as much as others but then we
are talking about the population as a whole. In such uncertain times when
people lose the sense of control in their life, it makes it difficult for them
to cope up and stay happy. I'm here, writing this article, to help my friends
all over the world to stay happy and try to look at the positive side of life
in COVID.
According to Yale academic, Professor Laurie Santos, here are a
few ways which can help you feel happy.
- Socialize
In a world of
lockdown, it can be difficult to socialize as such, but let’s thank the
technology that because of it we can still be able to do that sitting miles
away from our friends or loved ones. Research suggests that most of the happy
people are social too. So, pick up that smartphone and call your friends!!!
2.
Help others
While it might not sound as good a way to stay motivated and
happy, research suggests that helping others boosts our morale and level of
happiness. Donating money, cooking food for family and more, can bring about
changes in your moods too. In a way, we feel valuable. Doing random acts of
kindness can have a positive effect not only on ourselves but on a larger scale
it can positively affect the society too.
3.
Be present
Being mindful of where we are right now is very important. Happy
people tend to be more mindful, meaning, noticing where they are right now and
what is happening around them. Meditating is one great way to start practicing
mindfulness.
Needless to say that in such times, we find it extremely
difficult to make sense out of what is happening around us. We feel
overwhelmed, out of control, even anxious at times. Staying happy in such times
is very important for our own well being and the well being of those around us.
As suggested above, meditating and practicing mindfulness can work in ways we
cannot even imagine. Eating healthy food, getting in some amount of exercising,
inculcating movement of any kind in our daily routines, getting the right
amount of sleep are a few things that helps our body relax and nourish. Once
our bodies feel relaxed and nourished, we tend to be happier.
Towards the end, a little point that I’d like to touch is
acceptance. Acceptance can be a little challenging to practice but once you
start, there is no stopping you. For example, in the time of COVID, when we
accept what is happening around is beyond our control and try to work on our
level, the level of stress decreases tremendously which in turn increases our
happiness. On the other hand, let’s try to appreciate the time we are getting
to spend with our families and loved ones. For the ones who are
unfortunately alone in this bizarre situation, we can take out time to self
reflect and introspect, get to know ourselves a little better. With this, I’d
like to say a short goodbye! Stay safe, stay happy.
References:
· For pictures- https://pixabay.com/
· https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness/definition
· https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-covid19-science-of-wellbeing-yale-advice/
· https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2020/April/Are-You-Happy-The-Meaning-of-Life-During-COVID-19/
