Tag Archives: happiness

Culture and History, Social Studies

International Friendship Day

“True friends are never apart, may be in distance but never in heart.”

International Friendship Day is a day in several countries for celebrating friendship. It is celebrated on July 30 every year across the globe. The day is celebrated to mark the importance of friendships and friends in promoting peace in various cultures across the globe, to cherish friendship and value the people in our lives.

The idea of World Friendship Day was first proposed by Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho in 1958 in Paraguay. He coined this term when he was having dinner with his friends in Puerto Pinasco. The dinner hosted by Dr. Ramon Artemio Bracho gave rise to the World Friendship Crusade, which is a foundation that encourages friendships across the world irrespective of race, color, religion, and ethnicity.  In 2011, the Friendship Crusade, on April 27, 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared July 30 as official International Friendship Day. It was initially promoted by the greeting cards’ industry, evidence from social networking sites shows a revival of interest in the holiday that may have grown with the spread of the Internet, particularly in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. Mobile phones, digital communication, and social media have contributed to popularize the custom. It is also celebrated by exchanging gifts and planning outings with friends. In India, people celebrate this day by giving colorful friendship bands and flowers to each other.

Those who promote the holiday in South Asia attribute the tradition of dedicating a day in the honor of friends to have originated in the United States in 1935 but it actually dates back to 1919. The exchange of Friendship Day gifts like flowers, cards, and wrist bands is a popular tradition on this occasion.

Friendship Day celebrations occur on different dates in different countries. The first World Friendship Day was proposed for 30 July in 1958, by the World Friendship Crusade. On 27 April 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 30 July as official International Friendship Day with the idea that friendship between peoples, countries, cultures, and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities. However, several countries celebrate friendship day in before and after the UN-designated date. In India, Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of every August. In Nepal, Friendship day is celebrated on 30 July each year. In Oberlin, Ohio, Friendship Day is celebrated on 9 April each year.

“Friendship is the base of every relation. It is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” 

According to the United Nations’ website, “Through friendship — by accumulating bonds of camaraderie and developing strong ties of trust — we can contribute to the fundamental shifts that are urgently needed to achieve lasting stability, weave a safety net that will protect us all, and generate passion for a better world where all are united for the greater good.” The UN resolution places emphasis on involving young people, as future leaders, in community activities that include different cultures and promote international understanding and respect for diversity. To mark the International Day of Friendship the UN encourages governments, international organizations, and civil society groups to hold events, activities, and initiatives that contribute to the efforts of the international community towards promoting a dialogue among civilizations, solidarity, mutual understanding, and reconciliation.

“Freindship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”

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Culture and History, Education, Research Paper

The practice of gratitude

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“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” – Ekhart Tolle

Gratitude or gratefulness, is a feeling of appreciation felt by the recipient of kindness, gifts, help, favors, or other types of generosity, towards the giver of such gifts. Gratitude turns what we already have into enough. It gives us a feeling of satisfaction and eternal peace. Gratitude is the best medicine, it heals one’s mind, body, and spirit, and it attracts more things to be grateful for.

Why do we need to practice gratitude?

“The struggle ends where gratitude begins”.

We all are surrounded by beautiful nature, we have our favorite people around us and we have enough food, clothes, and facilities. But, it is quite common that we take these things for granted. When we take things for granted, we are not satisfied with what we have and we strive to get something else, if we get it, then again we want something else, and we are never satisfied. Consider the present situation where we all are sitting at our respective houses. Earlier we could freely roam around, walk-in streets and parks, visit beautiful places, enjoy the fresh air and beauty of nature. But, we used to take all these for granted. We were really not grateful for the places around us, the beauty around us. But, now we realize its importance. The reality is that we always have enough of the resources around us for our survival. But, sadness drives in when we don’t appreciate what we have and take that for granted. Each one of us is living a life that is actually a dream life for a second person. So, just embrace it.

Imagine your life without the people around you, who are always there with you and support you. If you remove them from your life and think deeply, you will realize that they have a big role to play in your life which you never really thought about. The people around you are precious, value them, and be grateful to them that they are with you. Imagine a day without food, clothes, shoes, or air. If you do this exercise, you realize that you have enough of these things. Your desire to eat in a restaurant and to wear stylish clothes was really not that important. You get your food every day, you have clothes and shoes to wear. So, be thankful for what you have. Each and everything we get in our life, each and everything happening to us is very valuable to build us, to build our personality. Everything happens for a good reason. Being thankful for everything we get and for every event we come across gives us a satisfactory feeling, it eliminates negativity and makes our life more pleasurable. Saying thank you to another person pleases them and us too.

What do we get out of it?

A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles. The day you start practicing gratitude, it never ends. The more you express your gratitude for what you have, the more things you will have to express gratitude for. It gives you immense peace, happiness, and satisfaction. It rewires our brain and reduces stress. It boosts our immunity, improves relationships, and makes each day more beautiful. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Gratitude is the most wonderful feeling. Once you start practicing it, there is no way back.

“Thank You ” is the best prayer anyone could say.

Education, English Literature, Research Paper

A step towards spreading happiness….

“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up” – Mark Twain

Happiness : In terms of psychology, we call happiness as positive emotions such as joy, pride, interest, enthusiasm. Happiness has also been said to relate to life satisfaction, appreciation of life, and moments of pleasure that means it has to do with the positive experience of emotions.

Many people think that happiness is having fun at a party, the excitement of new experiences or the delights of a fine meal. These are all wonderful experiences to be cherished and experience but they are not happiness. Happiness is something comes when you feel satisfied and fulfilled. It is a feeling of contentment and satisfaction.

“Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.”
– Aristotle

It is a fact, “Everybody wants to be happy and everyone loves to feel happy” so try to build positive environment near you to get yourself happy and others.

Being happy and making others happy is a Complex task as everyone has their own sense of comfortable environment. Being happy or unhappy is there’s own choice. People who chose to be unhappy because they think that by being unhappy, they will get something which is wrong. Unhappiness van never lead to your goal of achieving anything.

When we step towards spreading happiness, we tend to forget our own sadness and also we get new ways to deal with difficult situations. When a person fills a part of kindness to other, it comes back with a feeling of love, care and happiness.

“I think happiness is what makes you pretty. Happy people are beautiful.They become like a mirror and they reflect that happiness” – Drew Barrymore

How to be happy and make everyone happy there are several ways-

  • Act of kindness “Give what you Get”- Most of the time people treat you as you treat them. Although, there are some who are ungrateful but you should still have positive feeling no matter what they do.
  • Smile – It is the best way to be happy and speed happiness to others. An act of smile creates positive vibes to yourself and other person.
  • Make an effort to build good thoughts- try to spread good thoughts about anyone, being gossiping negative things make yourself with negative thoughts and the person listening surrounds with off feeling vibrations.
  • Appreciate – Always praise and appreciate to what you like and observe It helps us get in tune with feelings with others. It is a good medium to spread happiness by appreciating worthy.
  • Surprise others- Surprise others with different things they love such as kind words, help, etc.
  • Donate what you can do as charity- Helping the needy gives the person the most sense of self satisfaction. Giving a hand to somebody in crisis is the biggest act of kindness and happiness. Smile on the face of needy gives the full mental satisfaction.
  • Listen to someone who wants your attention- Just be there when someone wants you to be attended. It builds a feeling of that someone is there to support and help.
  • Be thankful to the one who helped you – Move a step to express gratitude for people who helped in your bad times.
  • Deal enemies with a positive note –Even those who do not deserve kindness, treat them with kindness.
  • Do not harm anyone- Keep yourself away form Negative thoughts and acts. Do not harm intentionally any human or animal.

All these activities will make you happy and people surrounding happy. We all need to spread happiness around us to get rid off negative acts of suicide and depression among people. Be communicative to the ones you feel is not feeling well mentally. We have to realise the need of happiness for oneself and the world

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate” – Oprah Winfrey

Education

“SMILE”:A POWERFUL WEAPON

Did you smile today?? – No, then smile a little before reading this article. A smile on a face is the most powerful gesture to a human being.

Smile is a beautiful, positive facial expression which provides happiness to the person observing and the one itself. Smile is a powerful weapon which connects to other people. ‘Scientific studies have confirmed that a genuine smile is generally considered attractive to others around us’. Smiles help you make great first impression in all aspects of your life.

“A smile cost nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.”– Dale Carnegie

How Smile acts as a Weapon? Let us understand-

  • To defeat bad mood- in your bad and frustrating mood, showing a smile to the world can actually give your brain a happy boost.
  • To conquer your enemy- a smile with confidence marks a strong effect on the enemy side. Jealous people are conquered by a smile which make them think that you a strong.
  • Smiling is contagious- Smile also has the power to elevate others mood and make things positive.It passes on the feeling of happiness from one to another.
  • Smiling makes a person attractive- We are naturally drawn to people who smile. There is a real physical attraction factor linked to the act of smiling.Use the attraction power of smile to draw people in.
  • Lowers stress- smiling relieves stress.It activates neuropeptides which are known to fight off stress. 
  • Keeps away from depression- a smile on the face keeps us away from depressed thoughts in mind.
  • Promotes positive thinking- Smiling can help you develop stronger paths in your brain for positive thinking.The more you smile, the more you get positive thoughts.

Smiles may strengthen the body on a cellular level. When you smile you reduce the rigidness of your cells and this relaxation can help reduce the risk of stress-induced cell mutations.

Think of how you feel when someone passing by gives a gesture of smiling, now imagine the same feeling of acceptance that you can give to someone…..

Now, you choose how to live your life-with smile or without. “Stay Happy Stay Healthy”

Keep Smiling….!!!!

Research Paper

Why self satisfaction is important in life?

It’s okay to take the break and admire your life .Slow down the pace of your life until it’s too late. As we grow up as a teenager our desire for more and more become a disease .Whether in offline or online world .Everything seems to be perfect in that one perfect click in online world.We want to explore people on internet and hypocrisy is that we don’t even have a time to admire our friends and family .

We have make a baseline for happiness more you have more you will be happy and these urge of getting more things will never be satisfied as long as we forgot to appreciate the things that we already achieved and that’s make it more vulnerable.Remember ,in our childhood we used to narrate our daily routine including every minor to major thing to our mother but as we grow up we start to share lesser information to them and even a point come when we hardly tell them anything .We make ourselves away from everyone rushing towards our goals. When we reach our goal rather than appreciating ourselves we start planning for the next goal and this loops never end .

Okay let me make you understand why is there a need of self satisfaction?

Let me narrate a story for you .There was a swami he told a person to visit a garden and pluck out most beautiful flower and swami makes some restriction that after plucking flower he should immediately come back to him and he can’t pluck a flower while returning .He went inside a garden and came across a beautiful flower but in desire that he might will find a more beautiful one .He reached the end of garden and eventually have to take back the dead flower to swami .He told everything swami .Swami after listening to his story told him that you were not satisfied with what you got instead you start looking for something that’s why this happened with you .We are never satisfied with what we have .The lesson behind this is we should start appreciating things around us until it’s too late.

What’s the purpose of life when you are not enjoying the journey?

Rather than focusing on destination one should indulge himself into the process of reaching that destination.But we are so wrapped up in the completing steps that we forget to stop.

You will definitely met someone in your life having good lifestyle and well established career ,family and friend but they want to reach to the next level .What is next level ?I can’t get it.

In my perspective one can immensely be satisfied by truly loving themselves and appreciating your efforts.In Japanese culture ,there is a concept of ikigai which central purpose is finding one’s satisfaction We can only admire our family and friends if we are happy from within and that’s the meaning of life .

We read this things on our daily basis and but still doesn’t understand the worth of self satisfaction in our life.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment below and have a wonderful day.