BY ANA RUIZ

Happiness is the most complex state someone could define. Some people consider it a state of mind, a place, a person, a bill, a good job, health, food, exercise; and I could go on and on. Actually, happiness is both the simplest thing to feel and the strongest motivation you will ever experience. How do you reach it though? Deepak Chopra, one of the best authors in the world of mind-body healing,   has a prescription for happiness 

Deepak Chopra was born in New Delhi and self-funded  his medical degree in Boston. Through the years his  love for medicine faded away and instead, he turned to alternative medicine -herbal teas and oils- which changed his life dramatically and led  him to publish a series of bestsellers . He discovered the perfect recipe for happiness, would you imagine that yours is just a few steps away? 

As I said at the beginning, happiness would most likely become the finish line of an ultimate goal we set for ourselves; but after getting it you would start looking for something else, initiating a vicious cycle. We will find happiness when we understand that it is an intangible thing that has to do with well-being, joy and ease. According to Chopra you would define yourself as happy if you are in flow and agree that things will happen the way they should. 

He believes that achieving happiness  is related to  three important elements:

Our brain’s set point for happiness: this means when someone sees a problem, another one finds an opportunity. We have to change the mentality of bad things happening and we need to understand something good will come out of it. 

Our life situation: A small percentage of our happiness is measured by the amount of things we own. They just make us happy in the short term, we need a more fulfilling life than just a couple of smiles a year.

Our voluntary actions and the choices we make: we will never be in control of what others do but we have the opportunity to act a certain way depending on our beliefs. Making rewarding decisions that make others happy or transcend in a positive way creates a state of happiness that money never will.  

While  doing research for this blog, I found a few articles claiming Mexico is  one of the happiest places in the world. I decided to do a local poll to understand what we define as happiness, and these are the words that stand out:

According to National Geographic’s Nicole Fuentes- Mexico is one of the happiest countries in the world because as we said before is not all about income.This is because most 

of the Mexican people rank faith as a priority in their daily life.  Notably, religious people tend to be happier than those who are not. Also our families are  a bit more extended than usual— our core family includes aunts, uncles and distant relatives who create extra emotional support and  promote the importance of family. Last but not least, our people prefer social interaction over wealth accumulations.

Let’s find our  definition of happiness together.