Whether stress kills or not, the talk of stress is so dominant in our lives, at home and work… be it a professional, a homemaker, or a school going child, ‘stress’ seems to the most hated, but most spoken word…

The only way to change this is to use opposite thinking whenever the thought of stress occurs.. Try this: if someone says ‘stress’, what if a couple of people around chant ‘happy, happy, smiling, smiling…’

Society and the media, not necessarily in that order have made it a fancy of our times to highlight stress…. How many times have you come across a story of people who have lived life happily, contended with whatever they could make of this wonderful journey! There seem to be no takers, or it is that stress sells better in this world! And if that is so, then, are all of us collectively driving this habit…!!

Well, this is not to speak of semantics, but directed at pushing each of us to our limits and extremes of positivity, and consequent happiness….

If you can kill yourself silently, by latent and potent ‘stress’, isn’t it much better, worthy and life saving, if we do the Opposite –  live happily, stay joyful, and enjoy every moment of life….

Should not more and more of us should go around and say.. Hey, you know I am happy, and am happy for no reason… sounds silly? Nope…. As though, “Hey I am stressed for no reason” did not sound silly and outright stupid?!

Look around and we see anyone and everyone ask if there is a reason to be happy… Happiness is a natural form of existence and hence, it needs no reason to be in that state… If you can be upset, agitated and downright negative for no reason, then why don’t you apply the same rule and stay happy…

Be happy for no reason, Celebrate for no reason, and just enjoy life and every single moment of the journey!

So, when you are not feeling nice, and feel low for no reason and for any reason, think opposite… Force happiness on you, just by quickly and deliberately placing the opposite of what you feel, and with a little time and effort, you seem to be happy, joyful and in a productive state of mind!

Some research shows that most people who carried so much of stress when they went to bed after a long and hectic day at work, suffered palpitations, and even massive cardiac arrest only in the waking or early hours of the day… and just closely observe.. you would see that in a sedentary life, all of us, sorry, atleast most of us, feel grumpy and grouchy only in the beginning of the day….. left unattended, you nurture the same feeling and so, gone is another great day of life by worrying, not even knowing the reasons for it…

It is best to use the power of opposite thoughts in such a situation… kill the morning grumpy, grouchy face by going for a quick jog, listening to an inspirational audio tape, some indoor cycling, or just anything that rushes blood to your heart and mind…

Being negative and grumpy is indeed unnatural, and that is the reason they are life taking… Only happiness if life saving, and anything which is not happiness is against life itself… precious and potent life’s of you, me, and each one of us….

And not only in the morning, this can be done any time of the day… Just change the place where you are for a few minutes, take a stroll, listen to a few lines of great music on your iPod, just do something and get out that negative flow.

So, keep this a rule… when you are not happy, just push you to think opposite… Action is the antidote to worry and negativity.. and it can be any action, even silly…. Let things be silly, its ok, but its more important to Live than anything else….

Practice this for sometime, and see your moving to your natural state… being happy, staying positive, and consequently, produce more results…

and make the best our of Life…. and this journey….!

We have read and written volumes about hiring the right person with the best skills and competencies, but hiring for happiness is a class in itself, and doing so will only foster a great and happy work place. Needless to say, and I dont think anyone will differ – a happy organisation ought to be a productive and winning organisation.

Here are a few tangibles,  that hiring for happiness would bring in to the organisation, making life happier for the organisation, its team and its topline and bottom line.

Happiness is being self disciplined.

This is a most important differential that will add immense value to the workforce and the teams. Whilst there would be so many hazy and nebulous definitions of what happiness means to each one of us, the fact remains that happiness is rather simple – people who are more self aware, know what they are, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and understand the value they can bring to the table. Happy persons are grounded in reality, and aspire to achieve incrementally, by being sincere, illustrious, creative, and solution centric.

Happiness is being satisfied and contended.

Happiness comes from being driven by the self and one’s own inherent values. So when a happy person comes in in any role, is a satisfied person, and takes his work head on with remarkable agility, and with a happy goal in mind. The absence of dissonance is by far the biggest positive factor that would contribute to workplace productivity.

Happiness is being a better team player and co-worker.

A happy employee, but for rare exceptions to a decimal percentile, is a good team player, and when many happy men and women are an integral part of the team, the performance is optimal, moving towards the team goals and corporate goals. The team comprising happy employees is a galvanised and energetic teams, that will be driven by happy leaders, who think that winning and happiness are just synonyms.

Happiness is being infectiously optimistic.

When someone at the workplace is infectitiously optimistic, he or she takes on any challenge headon, comes in with oodles of creativity, thus proffering solutions to workplace problems, looking at client and customer happiness as a goal, and crafting all products/services with mutual goals in mind. Happiness is the only state of mind that thinks win win which is the most desirable business strategy.

Happiness is being motivated.

Being in a happy state of mind, is being self motivated to accomplish ones’ personal and professional goals. In fact happiness creates a natural flow in the person that would not be possible with any other factor of motivation. Power, position, and money will rank far behind happiness as a facilitator to motivate. There are enough and more best employer surveys to drive home the point that the best paymasters are not the best and happy employers. And many leaders and HR professionals across the spectrum of diverse businesses will testify to the role a happy work force can play, and what money as a driving force cannot achieve.

As professionals, if each of us aspire to build happy teams, keep the customers and vendors happy, and keep the board happy, it’s the best possible winnning scenario. And the topline and bottomline can only be something everyone can be happy about.

Indeed, the best way to keep the employees at all levels of the organisaition is to keep them happy; might sound simple, but it would mean humungous efforts by the stakeholders, with HR in the drivers seat.  Employeee engagement can get to its best with the happiness of the employees and the workforce as its pivot.

Everyone is talking of Happiness. Let me talk about unhappiness. Why are we unhappy? In other terms this question reflects our inner being’s query of which way to happiness. If we can find a way to cut out unhappiness, then surely happiness would result? We need to delve a little deeper.

Do you ever feel the Universe? Are aware of its flow? Have you ever been lonely and in that state of self-pity which is also a state of questioning, wondered where all of this was moving to? Life comes and goes. The rivers flow on and on. The plants grow and grow.

Something is moving towards something; in spite of our inability to see the bigger picture.

In contrast see how we pattern our lives. The very first mistake is that we do all to stop the flow. First we cut ourselves from the “everflowing” that is happening all around us. Then we purposefully train ourselves to acquire and accumulate. This becomes our wealth. Then we put all our energies in saving it from grabbers and are mostly worried sick. Then when all this activity has provided us with all our wealth, it is often time to move on which we fight against tooth and nail. Is this the way to happiness?

The saying “Live happily ever after” is a joke played by humanity on itself. First there is no ever after. It is all in the now. The present now creates the future now; and our miserable existence rebirths itself everyday. So perhaps it is time to sit by the river and growing trees and re-ponder over the question and rework our priorities. Let’s ask ourselves the ultimate question “Quo Vadis?” – wither goest thou? Life is not there to accumulate things; that is conclusively clear. Then what is it? But then who am I to be professing so much? Let me speak from the greater personalities who have seen the error of our ways and have shown the way to be followed. I have learnt that having too much is in-prisoning and we must learn to live with less and let the rest move on. And the knowledge acquired has to be put into practice or it stales, locked up in the head.

• In the pursuit of learning, everyday something is acquired. In the pursuit of Tao, everyday something is given away. – Lao Tzu
• Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. – Goethe
• Remember people or for that matter the universe, remember you for your actions abd not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but then so does a hard-boiled egg. – unkown
• Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. Napoleon Bonaparte
• Never mistake motion for action. – E Hemingway
• Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things and you willyourself at one with the mysterious unity of the universe. – Chuang Tzu

From the above it is clear. That everything comes to us and that the universe is taking care of things if we shall let it; if only we can grow out of our narrow-minded agendas but everything also needs to be later passed on. Or will get passed on nilly-willy.

So perhaps to not be unhappy we just need to learn to flow rather than grow too many rigid roots and not stick on to what we really do not need?