Happiness remains one of those things that everyone chases around hoping to attain, but it’s not something we can simply grab and stuff in our pockets. If it were, most of us would have pretty fat pockets and far less stress.
Stress doesn’t magically disappear, either, but happiness does play a role in making it at least lessen its load. Since stress typically makes your paruresis worse, killing off the stress works to help alleviate paruresis – which means happiness can play a role in helping shy bladder subside.
Even if we can’t grab at happiness and stuff it in our pockets, we can work on cultivating it in a number of ways.
Personal Attributes
Harvard School of Public Health News notes a number of personal attributes play a role in overall happiness, regardless if those attributes came to us naturally or we spent dozens of weekends in workshops or at personal retreats trying to develop them. They include:
- Enthusiasm and a hopeful nature
- Truly engaging in life
- Optimism and the ability to bounce back with hope even when knocked down
- Strong network of family and friends
- Healthy behaviors, such as sleeping and eating well and avoiding excessive drinking, drugs or risky behaviors
Personal Actions
So how do you attain such personal attributes that can make your stress levels lighten and your paruresis lessen? Mayo Clinic offers up a range of personal actions that can help you shape the happiness mindset.
Spend time with people you love (or at least like). Getting together with people you love and enjoy can create instant happiness with long-lasting effects. It works best if the people you love are those with positive outlooks, as enthusiasm for life can be contagious!
Appreciate things. Gratitude is a magical thing that can change an outlook and your entire life. Try starting each day with a gratitude list where you write down at least three things for which you are grateful. Items can be as simple as a new pair of cozy socks or as deep as the love of your life. It’s tough to be sullen when you realize how much you have to appreciate.
See the proverbial glass as half-full. Optimism and pessimism can both be learned and unlearned. It may take years of repeated practice, but seeing the positive side of things instead of dwelling on the negative side of things is certainly something that can eventually come habitually.
Carpe diem! Living in the moment takes you away from the past woes of yesterday and imagined worries of tomorrow, allowing you to fully focus your attention on whatever is in front of you today. Sensations become more acute, your gratitude deepens and you begin to see there truly may be a positive side in just about anything.
The overall key to all this happiness cultivation is to practice it every chance you get. The more you work on developing the attributes and behaviors that lead to happiness, the easier the path to happiness can become.
SOURCES:
