Are you happy yet? Before you can answer that question, you need to answer the following question.
What is happiness?
Believe it or not, everyone has a different idea of what it means to be happy. Some people believe happiness is something you find outside of you, while others believe you can only find happiness within yourself.
Finding happiness outside of you
Some people associate happiness with things. This, I believe, is escapism. They’re not prepared to identify and deal with the reason for their unhappiness, so they concentrate on finding happiness in things. Yes, you’re correct that it’s more comfortable to cry in the back of a Mercedes. However, you’re still crying.
Some people associate happiness with other people. This is also escapism for the same reason as above. They don’t want to deal with the real reason for their unhappiness, so they link their happiness to someone else. But what happens if that person leaves? Are they doomed to be unhappy?
Some people associate happiness with their career. You guessed it, that’s escapism too. Just ask anyone who’s been made redundant. They’ll tell you not to put your happiness in that basket.
Some people believe you can find happiness at the bottom of an empty pint glass or an empty wine bottle, however, that’s escapism too because that’s where you find hangovers, and I don’t know anyone who’s happy experiencing those.
Some people believe you find happiness in front of a television screen watching actors portray what happens in real life. I wonder what word we can use to describe that?
Some people believe you can find happiness in your pastimes. They believe that if they spend their time and energy doing things they enjoy, this will make them happy. However, there are very few pastimes that last a lifetime except writing, of course.
Some people believe you can find happiness through their education, they’ll be happy if they pass one more examination. However, as Ernest Hemingway once said. “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”
Finding happiness within
The people who find happiness within are the people who appreciate everything they have, including life itself. They don’t tie their happiness to people or things that can be removed from their life. They also understand that sadness is a part of life, but it will only ever be temporary. They are the people who look within themselves and are content with who they are and what they’ve accomplished. They believe there’s enjoyment to be found in every breath.
Conclusion
I don’t know about you, but I think finding happiness within yourself is a great deal easier than trying to find outside of yourself. However, I’m fairly sure a lot of people don’t want to look there in case they don’t like what they might find.
Happiness is knowing who you are and being happy being that person.
