On the Occassion of International Day of Happiness, Celebs share what makes them happy!

The pandemic has changed the meaning of happiness for many people. On International Day of happiness, these celebrities tell JYOTHI VENKATESH how the pandemic impacted their happiness.

Vijayendra Kumeria

The pandemic has changed our perspective towards life, career and happiness. We all have realised that healthy family and friends are very valuable to stay positive has to be a way of life.

Shooting makes me happy because I'm passionate about acting. Spending time with my daughter also perks me up. And I feel one should smile and also return every smile they get.

Jasmin Bhasin

For every person, happiness varies. I'm a simple girl who loves doing what she loves and loves what she's doing. Playing with my two pets makes me feel unconditional love and happiness.

Being professional as well as dealing with people who are professional also makes me feel good. And Aly brings a smile to my face all the time and these small things make all the difference

Having good food in a peaceful environment while keeping your phone aside also makes me feel good.

Mitu

I have been very happy during the pandemic. I bonded with my parents after so much. I learnt how to cook and actually enjoyed it. I worked from home on concepts as well as made content for my YouTube channel.

I also got my health together. Family bonding, work and achieving work-life balance was the best thing for me. These two years have been satisfying in ways that I hadn't expected.

Ayush Anand

For me, the pandemic has brought a change in my thought process for sure. Earlier, I used to think and plan for my future or dwell on something in the past.

However, the pandemic made me realise that now is the only moment we have in our hands and only that matters.

Now whenever I get upset or negative thoughts clutter my mind, I close my eyes and say to myself that if I have a healthy body and mind, shelter over my head, food in my plate, clean water to drink and I am surrounded by my loved ones who are equally healthy then I am happy and grateful.

Angad Hasija

Everyone faced a lot of problems and depressing things happened like losing our close ones. So I think it was a very difficult time for everyone.

And there were people who tried to find happiness in those things, understood themselves, their families, close ones, including me. So somewhere, I spent time with myself.

This time has taught us a lot of things in life and given us internal happiness. It taught material things are not everything. We were into phones and were not focused because of which there was no happiness.

Internal happiness is very important. If you stay satisfied from the inside then you will be happy. You can take that as your earning. So, I explored myself in a lot of ways and spent a lot of time with my family because we were so busy with work. So, for me, it brought happiness to my life.

I learnt a lot of things and I'm thankful for that and taught us how to be happy. When we were locked in our houses, we were bored at home but we tried to keep ourselves entertained and happy.

Dipna Patel

The pandemic has taught me not to take things for granted. As I have been into spirituality and follow Nichiren’s Buddhist philosophy for 8 years, I always knew where true happiness lies.

To be happy, the most integral thing is to not let your happiness depend on other people and future possibilities.

For example, dancing and expressing myself through dance makes me very joyful and I can do it anytime I want to, I’m not dependent on outside circumstances to make that happen.

Charrul Malik

The pandemic has changed the meaning of happiness all together for each one of us. The pandemic has taught us a lot of things, so much so that we started valuing the small things in our lives.

For eg. taking household helpers for granted. So that time I understood that it is not everybody's cup of tea. No work is big or small, every work is equally important, difficult and should be valued.

And the satisfaction that we used to get after working all day, all by yourselves, we were internally happy. You understood that you're capable. You can multitask.

We cried, we laughed but we learnt a lot of things. Everything has changed 360°. Now everyone finds happiness in small things. We all have become Atmanirbhar. In these two years, we explored ourselves.

Arun Mandola

The pandemic was a golden year for me. I started learning new things, reading books and watching many interesting things on YouTube.

I did many online courses to groom myself so if I see my last two years' journey, then there are far changes in my personality. I have almost changed in the positive direction.

There is a Sanskrit quotation “* संतोषं परमं सुखम् *“ which means whatever you have, stay happy. When I was in 9th standard I was puzzled about my life and I then saw this quote on my school board.

It has deep meaning. I am following this quotation from the 9th standard. This quote speaks a million words.

Sharad Malhotra

Happiness is a very subjective term. Small things make me happy like going for a cup of coffee with a friend and even having long conversations with my mom on the phone as she lives in Kolkata.

The pandemic has taught us to value people's time and life and we know who is important to us. Life is no longer the same.

We have learnt to value relationships. I have developed patience also. Being happy means keeping your mind and heart positive irrespective of the situation and circumstances. Even playing with my pet Leo makes me happy.

Hemant Chaddha

I do what makes me happy. Pandemic has taught me to value all my relationships and work more. Having a cup of tea with a loved one also gives me joy.

Gymming/exercising, taking care of my health, eating food of my choice and even going for a movie of my choice makes me happy.

Pragati Mehra

Yes, the pandemic has redefined what really matters. For me materialistic things don't contribute to 'being happy' anymore. Non-stop hustle does not mean happiness for me.

For me happiness means taking life at a slower pace. Good health is happiness and I don't mean flat abs but good mental and physical health, it is very different from hitting the gym and counting macros!

Namita Lal

I have tried to stay focused on the things that I enjoy doing. So during the pandemic, I was stuck in Singapore for at least one and a half years and I managed to do online workshops on method acting with Jeff Goldberg's studios in Mumbai which was something I always wanted to do.

I also managed to do a short film, a feature film in Singapore. So, I stayed focused on the things I liked to do and also started reading a lot and working on my craft to stay happy.

Harjinder Singh

The pandemic has definitely changed the meaning of happiness for everyone. When people were locked up in their houses, they understood how to be happy with small things.

It's not important that you can find happiness outside, you can find it inside. And being a family man, being with family makes me happier rather than going out, socializing with others and parties.

Before We were busy all the time, but during the pandemic, we were at home, That time I spent time with my family. Understanding for each other increased.

Things have changed like the projects we used to do, they used to get released by this time but because of these, it has changed. People have faced losses in their businesses.

Try to find happiness in the little things according to me, learn to forgive, there is more joy in forgiveness. And now people have started valuing others' lives rather than materialistic things and more than that people have started taking care of their health.

People have realised that spending time with family and friends is very important because you can make memories together and have started valuing individuals.

Saanand Verma

It is very important to be happy for small things that happen in life because the pandemic created a lot of stressful times for all of us.

Going out with family was also not allowed and we all were completely locked inside the house. So now we have started to give a lot of respect to the small things in life.

Now, we know the value of happiness and we're welcoming small reasons to be happy in life. The pandemic impacted my happiness because we were not shooting and it was a very problematic scenario.

We were struggling for vegetables, good food. Nothing was available. I'm a very positive person so I spent all my time on creativity. I polished my creativity skills.

I made a lot of viral videos during the lockdown and I found another way to be happy, by making others happy. That is my takeaway from the pandemic.

Hansa Singh

Happiness is a very intrinsic part of our life. Happy mind, happy body. But we look for it outside. Covid and the pandemic did halt all happiness that was outside.

So I had no choice but to look within. When I look back, I would say it was life-changing. To be happy with my own company as I stay alone is what I learnt.

The video calls with family and friends helped. But yes, I have evolved as a human being. To look for happiness in my being, Small small things matter. And I have been happy with all that. Trust me, it’s all within. Happy me, happy soul, happy world.

Nilam Kenia

I feel happiness is a state of mind. I am responsible for my own happiness, people and things only add to my already happy state.

I believe if you associate your happiness with people, places, things, as in external stuff, your happiness will always depend on that and in their absence, you won’t be happy. Also, happiness is in the now.

That is what even a pandemic brought up for me. That we can be happy wherever we are. Now we can survive on bare basics.

Puja Agarwal

Being happy has always been part of my life. My definition of happiness has definitely changed to being a minimalist.

I can say, I have happy genes which I got from my mother. I find happiness in everything. It's my first nature. For me, the key to happiness is ‘Give more, Expect less’.