The happiness of each individual depends on many extraneous factors. The factors could be the attitude of other people towards them, the incidents taking place in the surroundings and many such things. However, this is what most believe is true.

What if you were told that the real obstruction to happiness comes from within? What if you knew that there are seven obstacles to happiness, and you can control all of them? In the chapter, we will discuss the seven main obstructions to happiness.

Impediment 1: Devaluation of happiness  

Most people devalue happiness a lot. Happiness becomes their second priority while acquisition of materialistic things takes precedence. People many a time sacrifice happiness for other materialistic things and end up being sad.

Impediment 2: Pursuit of superiority

Most people believe that being superior will provide happiness. This is a flawed logic and being superior actually kills happiness. The race for being most attractive, richest etc. leads to unhappiness.

Impediment 3: Craving for love and attention

Greed is perhaps one of the hallmarks of human civilization. However, this attribute of humans takes them away from happiness. The unhealthy ways of expressing one’s needs lead to reduction in happiness levels.

Impediment 4: Authoritative nature

Being authoritative apparently gives the feeling of being higher than the others. However, an authoritative nature is disliked by everyone around and is observed to fuel animosities between people. This leads to damage in relationships, which lead to unhappiness. One must not be looking for ways to control others.

Impediment 5: Distrust

The loss or lack of trust is another factor why humans feel unhappy. Fostering trust is a must for fostering happiness.

Impediment 6: Distrusting life

Losing trust on life and blaming one’s fate for every bad incident leads to a lot of unhappiness for oneself and for others around us. We need to focus on the positive aspects of life.

Impediment 7: Ignoring the source within

Each and every person has a capacity to create happiness within. This is called ‘mindfulness’. Mindfulness helps to be happy even during unpleasant incidents. Mindfulness is believed to be the most important determinant of happiness.