In today’s fast- paced world, we remember to do everything except for staying happy. Our lives have increasingly become too tough to handle, revolving around technology, stress, monetary gains, and other social evils. Moreover, everyone is involved way too much in focusing on things that do not need prioritized attention. Yes, we earn a lot and yes, we party well; but are we really happy?
Happiness in today’s world is measured by success in careers, indulgence in shopping and drinks and may even be validated by attention on social media. Think about it though, is this your definition of happiness? Do you wish to be happy in life only if you are acknowledged or praised or given a raise? As we grow up, unfortunately, we end up losing our innocence and serenity in the midst of pressures of adulthood. We most often end up forgetting to look after our own selves while we are busy managing a household or maintaining social relations. Good health, satisfaction in life, pursuing hobbies and enjoying idly have taken a back seat. Most of our happiness is sourced from material elements. This is precisely why our happiness is so transient. Once we lose the material elements, our happiness also vanishes. It is therefore crucial, that we base our happiness on real, rooted aspects of life such as family, health, steady progress and broadening of intellect.
Having mentioned the above, let us now consider happiness as a mood or phase rather than an achievement or goal. Think about it. Do we not look forward to a birthday, a wedding, a college admission or a promotion as the ultimate goal within the next few months as a measure of how happy (or not) we WILL be? Happiness, as observed, seems to be a part of only our future or our past and not our present. We are always striving towards achieving something or gaining something, post which we hope to be happy, and not in the process involved. In this way most of us waste innumerable hours, days, months and even years of our lives.
This is why we must consider happiness to be a way of life or a journey, and not the final destination. There will never come that ‘one fine day’ where you will be so satisfied with your life that you will not hope for anything else. No particular job/college/vacation will send you into an unending state of pure bliss. No amount of money or friends or the perfect life partner will ever provide you eternal happiness. Life is never a straight line. There are ups and downs, highs and lows- which means that your happy moments will not stay, but so will your disappointing phases. Both these kinds of phases will come and go, so do not expect them to stay. What you need to do, is fully enjoy the present moment and live it wholeheartedly. Your destination may arrive, but your journey will never come back. Your struggle, your wait, your age- everything needs to be enjoyed and felt happy about. As a kid you hope that adulthood and freedom will get you happiness, but that doesn’t turn out to be true. In this way, you lose out on your childhood. As a young man/ woman you hope to work hard so that the rest of your life and old age are secure; but when you reach that age, you have lost out on your youth. So while you work hard and live through your phases of life, stay happy. Embrace the uncertainty and the wait. There is no point in being perturbed about things we have no control on. Time will go on, so do not waste it.
Happiness is a mood, something on the lines of hunger. When you are hungry, you eat. It satisfies your need, but then you are hungry again after a few hours. Similar is the case with happiness. You will be sad or bored for a few moments, but happiness will always return if you know how to be happy with your regular life. Most importantly, if you are happy 24/7, happiness in essence will lose its significance. That is the beauty of this particular emotion, and in general of life itself.
What we all need is not a million dollars and Ryan Gosling/ Megan Fox as our respective life partners. We do not need only Ivy League college offer letters or the post of the CEO of Google. What each and every one of us needs is a change in attitude. A change that makes us change the definition of happiness in our heads and hearts. Once we make our peace with life and its challenges, it will become easier for us to stay happy in (not all) most of our life’s moments.
