Calmness and contentment are often happy symptoms of being successful in life. After all, most of us are striving in some way or another for stability and happiness.
But it works both ways, since calmness and contentment will also help you to pursue your professional goals with clarity of mind and grace of execution.
Trendy new methods of relaxation and reconnection have sprung up in the business world and the self-help sector. At the same time, the desire to achieve such moments is nothing new.
Indeed, different cultures around the world have long developed their own regional happiness rituals.
The Happiness Practices from Around the World
In Japan, for instance, forest-bathing is a way to reconnect with nature and shake loose from the concrete and digital confines of daily urban living.
Like many such national happiness practices, it is about finding a primal oneness with our planet rather than staying caught up in today’s artificial concerns.
One of Hawaii’s more prominent happiness philosophies is more of an inner quest.
Ho’oponopono is not about letting go of the modern world, but rather of your primal emotions.
Jealousy, anger, resentment, even if they are justified, will likely do you more damage that the person at whom they are aimed. Hawaiians therefore try to consider dealing with their own issues before making a confrontation.
Norwegians love the open air.
There’s not so much light in that corner of the world, and the weather is often inhospitable. So it takes a disciplined effort to get out and about and stir up those endorphins. It’s well worth
In Germany, on the other hand, it is other people who provide that sense of warmth and connection. Gemütlichkeit is a particular approach to convivial togetherness. Raising a glass and a song, even when the occasion may seem mundane.
The Spanish siesta is one of the world’s more famous regional rituals.
There is much to be said for the guilt-free nap. Twenty minutes in the afternoon can mean getting back to work re-energized and motivated to get productive.
But in France, the emphasis is on the end of the working day. A drink before dinnertime can help you to appreciate your work and home life alike, by ritualizing the transition from one to the other.
In Argentina and elsewhere in South America, mate tea is the preferred ritual drink. It can be taken any time of the day, and has both health properties and social implications. It is best taken with friends, passed around in a calabash bowl.
The Turkish happiness ritual is keyif.
It’s open to individual interpretation and preference. It simply means find a place and a moment to gather your thoughts and consider your surroundings.
In Bosnia, taking a specially prepared coffee with friends is a chance to keep the day on a local time scale – polako, or gently. It is about remembering to have a certain quality of life.
And Nigerian ubuntu – ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ in full – is all about community, and putting the group’s needs ahead of those of the individual.
Here’s an infographic by CashNetUSA presenting 10 little things in life that create happiness around the globe:
Wherever you are in the world, these happiness tweaks can be easily integrated into your daily life to keep you calm, focused and productive.