Happiness - Research and presenting

Happiness

A warm good evening to fellow toastmasters and guests. I would to thank my mentor and the person who motivated me to join this club TM Ramanan during this milestone speech of completing the level-1 project.

What makes you happy?

How many of you here feel happiness is an internal and not external? For those who didn’t raise their hands, I try my best to convince you that happiness is internal with this Level-1 speech-4 on Research and presentation topic. This speech is an outcome of my experience by listening to podcasts, reading more about happiness online and offline and implementing those in my life. I have also chosen this topic since happiness is need of the hour.

With my research I want to prove that happiness is  what comes internally to one with the help of two approaches one is using Science and another using philosophy.

First to start with scientific approach. As I mentioned early, happiness is internal, this does not come like a magic. Happiness is an outcome of chemical reactions that happen inside our body. People call them as hormones. The three hormones that are responsible for your happiness are Endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. Do you want to know how to make it  secrete in your body? There is a ritual, done on a daily basis, will boost your happiness. Early morning once you are out of your bed and got settled with things, do some form of physical activity that will make you sweat. This exercise can be of any form, a brisk walk, jogging, running, plank, squat, jumping jack anything that gives your muscles little bit pain for 15-20 minutes. What’s the end result? Congratulations, you have stimulated the three happiness hormones in your body. Starting your day with a sense of happiness make your entire day happy.

              Some people work late in the night on a regular basis. If they ask me how to get up early for exercise, then I will say prioritize your health over the getting “Among the best” rating that is the top rating in PayPal for those who don’t know.  “Getting results” is the second rating, if you manage to lead a happier and contented life then accept it happily. But not “Falling behind” rating means you are spending more time playing badminton and TT.  Let’s have the balance.

            

  During the day time there are some more ways to feel happier, going for a walk in the nature, not in the treadmill. Doing this, your senses such as vision, hearing and smell gets energized and you will feel happier.

            Let’s move to the interesting philosophical approach towards happiness.

If happiness means the lack of sorrow, anger and stress then I have two techniques to achieve it.

            

                First one, This I want to explain with a small story. Once Buddha was walking outside, a man approached him and started yelling at him. What are you thinking in your mind? Do you think you are a great philosopher? Don’t you have any other work to do? Like this he kept on shouting at him. On hearing these words, Buddha was not moved even an inch. He kept quiet and listed to this guy with calmness. This guy got pissed off and asked, “Are you listening to me? Why are you are not tensed with my words.” Buddha asked this person a question “If you give a person a gift and he is not accepting it, then to whom the gift belongs.?” The person replied, “It belongs to me”. Buddha replied “I don’t want your gift. You can have it yourself”. What a man. So the next time, when your boss or your wife yells at you, you needs have to take those gifts from them. Let them enjoy.

Second point, This I want to explain with a scenario. When your wife cooks the food(in some cases it is husband). If it is having too much salt or it is partially burnt, In this case, when you shout at her, you loose your inner peace and happiness. Instead Toastmasters suggest you a very great technique to deal this. That is Evaluation. New members and guests. Listen to me, how evaluation is being done here.  You start with the positives. As usual, you rocked the cooking, food is too good, it has that perfect blend, consistency, aroma. Wow! Then go for improvements. It would have been the best food in the world, if you had an eye on the salt. Otherwise it is still a great food. Important thing here is stop with one improvement. Else she can easily identify that you are blaming her.

Another important point, use tone wisely, don’t use sarcastic tone. Since it will backfire you. After that you have to use the first point. To keep calm and composed. For that you may need to do meditation. So avoid sarcasm in dealing with certain situations.

To summarize, We saw two ways to approach the happiness in our life.

1.       Scientific way to do exercise in the morning and walk in the nature.

2.       Philosophical approach. Hope you can recall the Buddha story and dealing with your wife.

With this I conclude my speech by saying a self created quote in Dr.APJ style “If an individual is happy, then the family is happy, if the family is happy, then the society is happy, if the society is happy then the country will be happy. If the country is happy, then the entire world will be a happier place to dwell”