The Swedish Art of Happiness

What is happiness? It seems like an odd question, but is it? Do we know how to define happiness? Is it same for all or relative? Does it even make a difference in our lives? In fact, happiness does have a pretty important role in our lives.

Maybe you have heard of Sweden. This country always remains in top 10 in the ‘Global Happiness Index’. What’s the secret of their happiness? Is it money or just because they are a developed country? Actually none of it.

The philosophy behind it is ‘LAGOM’. Lagom is a Swedish and Norwegian word meaning ‘just the right amount’ or ‘tasteful balance’. For example, a moderate weather; neither hot nor cold. Not too little, not too much, just right. This very technique of balancing everything in life is the main reason behind their cheerful living.

i) Suppose you know, you can do a work in 7 days using your normal energy. But if you work hard or work continuously without break you can finish the same thing in 5 days. So what Swedish people does is similar to the first example. They work with their normal energy and at the same time they enjoy their life. You needn’t to be a work freak to be successful. You don’t need to rush always. Take rest, do work. Maintain the balance. There are many people who think about vacation or sweet leisure time during their work and think about work during vacation. As a result, neither he can concentrate on his work nor he can enjoy his vacation. So a good balance is necessary .

ii) In many places, we see parents are deploying their children here and there. Dance class, music class, drawing class and bunch of other things. A busy schedule. There is no break. It is easy to get wrapped up by the idea that our children should be constantly stimulated. But Swedish people rarely overdo extra curricular activities. In fact, experts are confirmed that "quiet time" is equally, if not more, important than organized activities. Because it gives you a space to think and develop important human skills like friendship, communication and creativity.

“ Those who wish to sing always find a song"

----- Swedish proverb.

iii) A good mind and health is largely depended on healthy surroundings. Like the room we live in or spend most of the time , bears many information of ours. Our room represents our personality. A detective can easily get to know about us deeply just by entering our room. So we have to keep our room clean and tidy. There mustn’t be any trash in our room. What we do is , we always beautifully arrange the drawing room or the guests room of our house. We think, yah guests come in this room so this room should be well and perfect. But we do not pay heed to the beauty of the room where we live 365 days. So if we want a better ourselves, we definitely need better surroundings

“ When you talk, you are repeating the things you already know. But if you listen ,you may learn something new.”

-------- Dalai lemma

So in the conclusion, I’ll say life is a bunch of events. And you just need to balance everything to remain cheerful. People who run after money neither they enjoy their time with family nor they become satisfied with the money for which they have wasted their whole life. We can’t buy happiness. We can’t expect to have it in our lives automatically. We need to make the way so that happiness is achieved.

I hope you will try to implement the ideas to live a better life.