Yes you heard it right. Not leisure time, not being on a vacation but being busy makes us happy! Sure we all have been, and absolutely loved being, a sluggish teenager for long enough who would make any sorts of excuses to get rid of any task that can disturb his state of rest of lying comfortably on a couch . 

We have dearly loved the phase when sitting idle doing nothing but watching back to back seasons of our favourite sitcoms was the best activity and doing anything productive was last on our to-do list. But a new truth has been discovered, a truth that can surprise you! Being busy makes us really happy and being productive can give a totally different kind of high!

While a lot of people must have already advised you at some point of time to stay busy, maybe in order to get over a bad breakup, to get through the loss of a dear one or to handle a failure at the professional front, it is a well-established fact by now that keeping our mind and body occupied helps us in making through tragic times. But how about adapting to a busy lifestyle on a more permanent basis and trying to seek happiness from it? Can it work? Here’s why it absolutely can.

It makes us feel important and necessary

For some strange reasons unknown to the mankind, or maybe unknown just to me, having a busy schedule with a lot going on with our lives makes us feel quite important. When we have tasks to do and responsibilities to take care of we feel much positive about ourselves. In fact in front of others, people sometimes pretend being busier and more productive than they actually are just to make themselves look more virtuous. It’s like a validation for living a full and worthy life while not being busy enough and having lots of idle time may manifest that you aren’t quite useful. 

Psychological studies also suggest that having a lot on our plate and a packed schedule has a benefiting effect on our mind and soul. Even if for the sake of being busy, one indulges himself in meaningless and unnecessary tasks, it spills happiness while sitting idle may seem attractive at first but eventually it invites misery. Busyness gives a person a kind of ego boost which does a great deal in making him/her happier.

It makes relaxation time more rewarding

It’s a law of nature. To appreciate light, we require darkness. To appreciate silence we require noise. Much like it to appreciate free relaxation time we need to get taste of a busy lifestyle first. Isn’t making sense? Think of it this way. Imagine sitting in a Jacuzzi with a glass of wine in your hand and some nice music falling over your ears. If you get to do this every single day for a month because you don’t have anything else to do, then even the warmth of a Jacuzzi and the richness of wine will start fading away. 

But if you are living a routine with 12 working hours everyday and then after a fortnight you get to spend a couple of hours in that Jacuzzi, which will feel more rewarding? The latter one of course. So staying busy doesn’t just make you happy while you are busy but it also lets you enjoy the free time with a greater joy and delight. Total win-win isn’t it?

Having given you two completely valid points of how being busy can make you happy I got to say that we still often prefer idleness over busyness. Unless there is a little something that can motivate us to spend our energy and do a certain task, humans prefer sitting doing nothing. But once you get a reason to get busy and justify your busyness, happiness will follow soon. Often we make up those reasons ourselves but nevertheless they work pretty well.

Also it is extremely important to find a healthy balance between work time and leisure time. While being unemployed and idle can push you in a pit of depression, doing too much work in long stretches can be exhausting and tiresome for the body and mind alike. Interestingly keeping one’s mind engaged also counts as being busy and can have a rewarding effect. Staying busy doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to keep moving your legs and running around all day but having your mind engrossed also serves the purpose as busyness can be mentally or physically.

So now you know that indulging in an activity is way more beneficial for you than sitting around doing absolutely nothing. And there are a million ways in which you can make yourself busy. And since it is going to make you happy you also have got a pretty solid reason to ditch that inactive laziness and idleness and get started with something, anything! Doesn’t matter if what you do has a point or not or if it is making a difference in yours or anybody else’s life but it will most certainly make you happy and that makes it worth it!