Home / Blog / happiness / inspirational quotes / Another Great Reason to Get Happy or Be Happy
“Happy people earn almost $1 million more in their lifetime than
unhappy people.”
Most people seek happiness–more for its own sake than anything else but
now there’s another great reason for happiness.
There are a ton of ways to improve our happiness level but let’s just
concentrate on one today. Have you ever heard the Spanish word “querencia.”
During a bull fight, the bull will sometimes stake out a particular part of the ring where it feels safe: its querencia. Perhaps it’s a corner, in a square field, or perhaps it’s a place where the bull successfully toppled a horse. Whenever the bull has a chance, it will return to its querencia.
This is a term that has great metaphoric resonance.
Each of us should find our own querencia, our sanctuary, a place to which we can retreat from the lances that pursue us. Maybe that querencia is a place, like a bedroom or a bikepath – or a mental area of refuge – or a frame of mind.
But the useful metaphor doesn’t stop there.
Apparently, the bull is often most fierce and unpredictable when it’s fighting its way to its querencia. Sometimes, perhaps, it’s so important to us to gain our querencia that we’re hurtful when anyone blocks our way. That’s carrying the idea too far and will not increase our happiness. If anything it will decrease it. So we need to be careful about our desires. Anything that hurts our interpersonal relationships will negatively affect our happiness.
Also, although the bull feels safer in its querencia, its querencia didn’t necessarily afford it any greater protection from the matador.
So what’s the lesson? Identify your querencia, find comfort in it — but use it as a strong base, not a hiding place.
