How to be Happy - A genuine guide to living lighthearted

Merriam Websters dictionary defines lighthearted as below:

a) Having or showing a cheerful and happy nature
b) Not serious
c) Free from care, anxiety, or seriousness:  happy-go-lucky
d) Cheerfully optimistic and hopeful:  easy-going

I see this in action when I watch movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Just Go with it etc. These are amazing movies BTW, check them out. The Characters are surreal, perfect and well-crafted into light-heartedness. They appear cool and effortless, not disillusioned by life’s daily chores and trauma. They feel so good to be around, and appear blissful all the time.

I always wonder what it is to have the mind-set of these people. The following, I observed is what light-heartedness is NOT about:

1.      “All time Positivity” – You cannot force yourself to be positive at times when you are anxious. There is an ever going trend in the internet that positivity and confidence will get you out of anywhere. But like every other energy, positivity and confidence are not available all the time. Just like you feel tired after heavy work, you lose out on positivity at times. Forcing it out ain’t gonna help and it will make you look bogus and incongruent. Above all, it will not benefit your psyche. So, when you have to be low, forgive yourself and take it easy.

2.      Black and white thinking – For serious people, the world is either totally good to them or not at all good to them. Black and white thinking will make you serious about life. You need to understand that life is made of shades of grey and whatever bad things that happen is just very temporary. Black and white thinking will make you as heavy hearted as a sinking submarine.

It’s OK if you fail. It’s OK to succeed. Everything shall pass.

3.      You have to be strictly a character all the time– Self-discipline is good. But you have to be able to laugh at yourself when you fail here and there and deviate from your inner self by mistake. Especially when the consequences aren’t that…. Gruesome.

95% of what we keep feeling sad, disgusted, afraid or angry about (think of similar characters from the movie, “Inside Out”) are not going to impact our lives in anyway. Don’t’ sweat the small stuff. (Read the book that goes by the same name)

4.      Victim mentality – The one single thought that makes people think they are on cages and makes them put efforts to break out of a prison they are actually not, hurting others and themselves in the process. Google “Victim thinking” and read every article you can about it. And don’t forget to get rid of it later.

5.      The inner beauty Dilemma – I’ve been planning to write a new article all together about the topic of inner beauty. But to surmise it with simplicity, here is a quote.

Rachel Dawes to Bruce Wayne: “Deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you.”

Inner beauty is as good as shit, as long as it is not expressed outside.

Batman realises this very early in his career as a, well, ….. BATMAN, and replies the following to Rachel when questioned about his identity at a later time. (BWT you need to have to watched the movie to understand this effectively)

Batman to Rachel: It's not who I am underneath, but what I do …that defines me.

Rachel Dawes: Bruce? *Not to mention, amazed and shocked. Bruce is sexy in her eyes now.*

I could have easily blown up this article into a hundred pages, but I am not because I have decided to let you “THINK LIGHTHEARTED”

Adios fellas.