What does happiness mean to you?
If you could not tell the reason behind your sudden smile, that is the definition of happiness according to me.
If you could smell the earth before rain (petrichor) and can get relaxed at least for a few seconds however busy you are that is happiness.
I am not happy, because I don’t have problems or because I live in a flowery world where nothing goes wrong…nope. I am happy because I have learnt few life lessons which just have changed me upside down. Now I find Beauty in everything…. like everything feels fine and cherishable.
But I have found out that even if things don’t go as well as you planned, you could still search for the happiness there. It only takes a little effort and optimism from your side. And small things in life make you happier.
Yes, happiness is an ingenious trap designed by billions of years of evolution to keep us in the loop of surviving.
I feel happy when I help others? It’s not my fault. It’s just a useful trait for social animals like ourselves to keep on surviving and reproducing.
Cultivate an understanding of what happiness really is. Happiness is not what marketers, the mass media, your better-off neighbours, and very possibly the people closest to you, will have you believe it is. It has nothing to do with being rich, famous, talented or good looking, and it can’t be bought or sold. Those are all illusions, because what they bring is transitory pleasure. There’s a massive difference between transitory pleasure and real happiness, the kind that you take with you wherever you go. I’m not knocking transitory pleasure either. It’s fantastic: go get yourself some (in moderation) if you can, but you have to make that distinction and keep it in perspective, so that you’re not enslaved by it.
Repeat. Never stop. This is critical because you’ll have setbacks and new negative people showing up in your life. Plus, you’ll fall flat on your face and go backwards sometimes, in your quest for happiness. You might wake up one morning totally miserable again. When that happens, accept that it happened and it is what it is, which is not the same as accepting defeat. Then get up, dust yourself off, forgive yourself, remind yourself of the decision you made, and start again right where you are. Mastery never comes in a straight line, but it does get easier as you go along, as you start to understand that happiness really is a choice. Then when shit happens, you just calmly handle it.
Where people get happiness, wrong is when they think of happiness as a destination… a plateau one reaches after years of climbing.
IT’S NOT.
Happiness is a way of travel. The person who is “happy” is emotionally resilient. He experiences the same tragedies, failures, and losses as anyone else but looks at each with a healthy perspective.
AUTHOR: Ānanda Bashu
