The happiness quotient is a very important concept of human life. It is the tool that measures the amount of happiness each person has achieved in his/her life. It deals with the positive place a person creates in his mind, which defines his life. Happiness consists of all those emotions that increase our sense of joy. Our life, the whole of our life, has been a struggle to get to one perfect moment, one achievement which can give us happiness. We have been waiting our whole life to let it happen so that we can be happy.
It may be a perfect job, a dreamy date, or a fit body, we think when all the signals of the road are green then will be the correct time to go on a journey, but we have long forgotten that life is less about destination and more about the joyful journey. Even waiting for the very smallest things like your amazon order to arrive, we become impatient and anxious, because we feel that happiness is a destination to be achieved. The world has always taught us the same. Achievement and happiness have always been complementary to each other. And the worst part is that we feel worthless, sad, and now even depressed if we do not match the standard of success set by others for us so to be happy.
This is why a student of age 12, commits suicide as his mark-sheet does not match that of a high-grade student. He writes in his suicide note, “Dear Mom, I am sorry to make you sad, I wanted to make you happy with good marks.” Maybe the child has missed the concept of happiness or rather we have made happiness really costly, and this makes us rethink the importance of happiness quotient at a tender age.
Happiness quotient is something that is the need of the hour, but the concept of happiness is still not clear even in the mind of elders. Happiness has always been associated with performance and achievement rather than the mental and physical well-being of a child. If we really want our children to be happy, we must systematically detach marks, grades and achievement from happiness. We need to inculcate happiness quotient from a tender age so that they do not attach happiness with materialistic wealth.
Better done than said, the Delhi government has launched a happiness curriculum and now the first lecture of public school is a lecture on happiness. The idea was to give tools to students to manage their life better. Happiness has taken this place because it is the key to building a healthy life. That is why it is important that just like other facets of life, due focus is given on helping the kids find happiness from their surroundings and not to associate the same with wealth.
A child who is happy, is supposed to have the following additional traits in his personality:
- Better eating habits and appetite
- Enhanced brain agility
- Improved energy levels
- Better social communication
So, it is the responsibility of parents, family, friends, government, society and, most importantly, schools and colleges to take initiative to make students happy so that they surely become better citizens.
About the Author
Mrs. Samiksha Rakesh Khatri,
Crayons International School, Indore
