Stop negativity with a red signal and allow positivity with a green signal

By K.R. Nayar

What you permit to enter your mind decides your happiness. Here are a few ways through which we can bring happiness into our minds. These are things which we know can give us happiness but we tend to ignore them. With slight modifications and conscious thinking, we can travel a long way happy.

I write on sports almost all the time, and the one thing that stands out among successful sportsmen is their ability to keep themselves happy every day, feel good, and look ahead with positivity. I have tried to analyse this deeply and realised that happiness depends on what you allow to enter your mind. We also need to ensure that we take care of our physical self by remaining fit to feel happy.

Only a healthy body can support a person to chase his or her dreams, or even admire and enjoy whatever we see and do every day.

So the first thing we need to decide at the start of the day is to focus on ourselves. While it may be yoga for some, it could be a brisk walk or a jog or swim for others. What matters is that we devote that time exclusively to keep us physically active.

 I am not qualified to recommend what kinds of food we need to eat, but for sure we all know that we need to eat a healthy meal three times a day. After all, a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. 

While most of us are aware of the importance of staying physically fit, we always look for reasons to avoid or postpone.  I often hear people saying that there is no time to exercise due to work pressure.  As much as our work is our priority, so should be the desire to look after ourselves.  Sure....we need to earn our daily bread, and hence cannot avoid work. 

However, I believe that more than trying to 'earn', we should try and derive happiness from the job we do. While some of us are fortunate to be doing jobs that we have a passion for, not everyone gets to do that. That is when we need to be realistic and accept the fact that our job earns our bread, but we can also do things that satisfy our soul without the aim of 'earning' from that. That satisfaction of the soul propels us to do our job better, and derive happiness from it as well!

Then there are events in our lives when we are completely out of control..like the coronavirus pandemic. Setbacks due to this pandemic have plunged many into deep sorrow. It is during such moments that one needs to decide as to what is it that we allow to enter your mind as we battle our way ahead. Very often when the going gets tough, negativity finds its way into the mind. That can be more harmful than any virus because it can destroy you mentally and in due course of time physically as well.

Change is a part of our lives and to come to terms with that we must keep our minds active. Try doing small things that can bring joy. For some, it can be reading a book, or watching movies, or cooking, gardening, or simply listening to music. And we should do them whenever we feel like doing it just to experience that joy. All these can help us keep negativity away from entering your mind.

Imagine stopping the negativity just like cars screeching to a halt at a red light. And let positivity in just like the traffic surge when the green light is on. Then keep driving, and let our destination be happiness.