With Gratitude we goodbye to 2023 and with Gratitude we welcome 2024.
It is good to reflect on happiness in this moment of great transition from one year to the next, one year older
It was a pleasant evening. Good Northern Mexican food, good company of friends involved in Pubic Health. The now defunct El Modelo restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico provided good ambience with some music in the background and the waiters elegantly dressed with years of experience behind them attended to you.
There in the midst of the flavours of tampiquenas and margaritas, I was asked the question:
How would you define Happiness!
I remember that moment very well. Two Mexican Americans and a West African from California were peering at me, waiting for an answer.
I thought following a moment of silence to concentrate my mind and the answer came to me:
Happiness is the absence of desires. To be happy, you have to decrease your desires.
They didn't respond immediately, then after a moment, the West African psychologist responded with glee: that is a very good definition.
That was long before I was introduced to the Yogic Philosophy of Patanjali by a Chinese Accountant from Malaysia or had encountered Buddhism through the book, The Jew on a Lotus by Louis Kaminitzer.
I am not interested in Hinduism or Buddhism as religions but I am very attracted to the philosophies of Patanjali and Buddha, both thought to be contemporaries in Northern India around 2500 years ago.
I am asked a lot of questions about how to find out who you are , about mindfulness and in general, how to avoid the anxiety of living every day life.
I stress GRATITUDE. HUMILITY and COMPASSION, all learned from my association with the indigenous people of USA and elsewhere.
I will briefly mention GRATITUDE.. we are one year older, we are afraid of the future ? While forgetting to live in the present.But Gratitude does make an impact on your life as it is now , which has to be lived in the present,
A past-positive temporal frame involves focus on positive memories of the past and is associated with outcomes such as greater life satisfaction. Dispositional gratitude consists of the tendency to notice and appreciate positive aspects of life, and this characteristic is also associated with greater well-being.
Positive memories of the past, ever eager gratitude for what you have now.. your future would be happier ..
