Are you happy?
For some of us, we just don’t know.
For others, we’re not even sure what happiness means to us or how to recognize it in our lives.
That’s the case for Hector in the movie, Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014).
Hector (Simon Pegg) is a psychiatrist who has a steady practice and life filled with predictable routines.
Hector is concerned he’s not making progress with his clients. He knows something has to change within; he’s just not sure what it is.
Hector realizes he needs to get away and decides to embark on a quest around the world to discover the meaning of happiness.
His journey is a blast and he takes us on a wonderful adventure.
As you watch the film, look for these 5 practices of how to be happy.
Be Open to Diverse Experiences
Living by a rigid set of rules, your emotional experience becomes limited and lacks passion.
We tend to think there is a success formula to life that, if we follow it, will lead to happiness. As we set out on our individual paths, we have a tendency to slip into routines and our lives seem like they’re on autopilot.
We go to work, pay the bills, attend family functions, and do it all over again, day after day.
It happens so fast that many of us don’t recognize the limitation of our life experiences and how it leads to dissatisfaction.We can get so stuck that we’re willing to do anything to escape how we feel and what’s not working.
Hector has been stuck in a routine for so long, that he needed to embark on a journey. Not only to learn about happiness, but to begin feeling his emotions once again.
Be Social – We Need Each Other
According to Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and best- selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, there is a secret to happiness: social connections.
“We’re one of the most social animals on our planet. We need each other for just about everything… when our social connections are strong, we’re happy; when they’re lost, we’re devastated.”
Before Hector’s adventure, his social connections were limited. After his world tour he connects with people everywhere he goes. Notice how he meets a rich diversity of cultures, professions, and belief systems.
Hector doesn’t judge any of these differences and remains curious with a light-hearted spirit.
Spread Happiness – It’s Contagious
In 1948, the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) began studying the heart health of over 15,000 people. The social connections of the participants were studied over a thirty-two year period. Researchers calculated how changes in the happiness of any person affected their entire network of connections.
They discovered that human happiness depends upon large clusters of people we don’t even know.
What the researchers found is that if your friend becomes happy, it increases your chance at happiness by 15 percent.
Up to three degrees of separation changes the probability of impacting another’s happiness. Happiness spreads through social networks like a virus – happiness is contagious.
Notice how Hector’s emerging happiness affects those he meets.
Create Your Own Celebration Practice
Another way you can discover happiness is to create your own celebration practice. This is a daily habit of looking for the surprise and delights throughout your day.
At the end of the day, you’ll have several examples of ways your day delighted you. It can be as simple as a phone call with a friend, or a delicious lunch.
Before going to sleep, write down at least three things that either surprised you or delighted you. This is a good way to end the day and prepare you for a pleasant sleep.
Remember, the emotional state you’re in when you go to sleep at night will be the filter of your dreams. So why not go to sleep happy and in joy?
Try this practice and watch how your happiness expands. It really works.
Embrace All Emotions
Ideally you want to access your full range of emotions at all times. If you do not allow yourself to have the full range of emotions, you are actually denying the full capability of the system you have available to you.
Think of a compass.
Would you ask a compass not to show you north or south? A compass that can’t give accurate directions is of little use. It doesn’t give you a pointer or marker of where you are.
When you try to shut down what you are feeling, you are actually stopping your compass. It’s as if you are saying, “North and south are not valid – I’ll only look at east and west.”
The more you shut your compass down, the more lost you become.You’re in an internal fog and don’t know which way to turn.
When you embrace the full range of all emotions, you’ll experience expansive levels of deep joy. You’ll discover happiness like never before.
Notice at the end of the film how Hector taps into his emotions. It provides such clarity of how he wants to live that he doesn’t hesitate and takes the inspired action to his new life.
Ultimately happiness is an inside job. As professor Coreman (Christopher Plummer) says,
“We should concern ourselves not so much with the pursuit of happiness, but with the happiness of pursuit.”
This alignment movie is a terrific time and we hope it makes a shift towards happiness like it did for us.
The Top 8 Energetic Benefits from Watching This Movie:
- The ability to provide love and compassion in everything you do and everyone you meet.
- The support to find peace in every moment.
- A release of any clinging to routines that no longer serve you at this time.
- Permission to be happy regardless of what is occurring in your life.
- Release the belief that money is the only path to happiness.
- A deepening gratitude for being alive.
- Release the fear of living and of dying.
- A letting go of the obstacles to discovering your own happiness.
The Steps To Energetically Benefit from This Alignment Session:
- If you haven’t done the Intention Session, then do this first and only once. Think of it as downloading an App on your smartphone.
- Once completed then you’re ready to benefit from any of our Alignment movies/TV shows.
- Watch the movie Hector and The Search For Happiness in its entirety. It’s currently playing in theaters now.
If you enjoyed this article and would like more movies to assist with your emotional experience, consider buying our book, Taming Your Dragons: Making Peace With Your Emotions.
Use the code Blog25% to save 25% off Taming Your Dragons or It’s Just commerce. Available in print and all digital formats only at our bookstore: www.pomomarket.com
David, I loved your article. I have been writing and coaching women and men to be happy now for four years. Anxiety seems to be at the foundation of unhappiness. Learning to love and accept ourselves, rather than condemning and beating ourselves up is key. When we accept ourselves, magically, we also accept others AS THEY ARE! Then our world opens up like a beautiful flower. We find joy in the smallest of things, a rose blooming, or a beautiful tree in fall color, a lake at sunset…. a baby giggling. It is the small things rather than the big things like houses, cars, or relationships that bring us joy and permanent happiness.
Thank you for writing this!
Blessings and Joy to you!
Jennifer