On Happiness

Happiness... it's what we're always looking for. Since the day we're born until the day we die, and everything in between is a journey in search for happiness. It's our top need, our aim in life. We choose our education to find a job that will make us happy. Some choose ones that would make them rich, because money makes them happy. Others choose ones that are prestigious or that would make them popular so that people would look up to them, and that makes them happy. A few others choose to do what they love, and that and only that can make them happy.

We search for love because it makes us happy. We get into false relationships or friendships thinking they'll make us happy. We go out, have fun, read books, watch movies, get to know new people to find happiness. But the question is are we really happy? From looking into people's faces you'd know that only a few are truly happy. No, it's not because of everything about the revolution going wrong; it has always been that way, all over the world.

So why aren't we happy? What makes us happy? What is happiness? 

To be happy you first have to know where happiness comes from. The answer to this question, along with happiness, lie within you. We might not feel it because it's usually affected by outer circumstances. But the truth is that the decision of being happy comes from deep within you, and it's that decision that will shape your life. The first step to happiness is self satisfaction, to not feel bad about yourself, accepting who you are. But in case you're wondering, this will not stop you from improving yourself, but rather make you want to be even better. Acceptance is relative, if you're 100% satisfied with yourself, you'd be a narcissist. You need to be satisfied enough to not hate yourself, "enough" is the keyword. 

The second step is seeking betterment of yourself, because with every bit you improve yourself you get an extra bit happier. For these two things to happen, you need to be in a good relationship with your Creator. You need to remember that He is ready to forgive you, and when He forgives, you'd be able to forgive yourself and accept it as it is. He'll give you support to seek betterment, and to know what needs to change. It's faith and belief that keep us alive, and it's the greatest of all love that keeps happy, so always be close to Him.

You also have to have a balance in your life. Imagine a person doing nothing but working, day and night, during the weekends, never having any fun. Even if they love their job so much they can't be happy. Or someone else who doesn't work at all with no purpose in life. Or someone living without love, any kind of love. Having a balanced life is a must for true happiness. If you don't have the time to work, have fun, eat, love, be with family, go out with friends, rest, workout, pray, you can't be truly happy. That brings us to time management; in order to be able to do all this, you have to be able to manage your time. The time we waste everyday doing absolutely nothing is what keeps us too busy that we can't be happy. Make use of every minute, don't just sit there doing nothing when you can do a lot that would make you a much happier person. 

With balance, also comes harmony; that your life as a whole makes sense together. You can't work as a thief at night then go pray the next morning and be a happy person, can you? You can't be two different human beings one on weekdays and one on weekends and be a happy person, can you? In music, if the instruments aren't in harmony, the tune would be the worst. In cooking, if the ingredients aren't in harmony the meal would be inedible . In art, if the colors are not in harmony the picture would look ugly. So is life, if your feelings, if what you do, if who you are, are not in harmony you can't be happy.

But of course, for all this to happen you have to surround yourself with good people. A few lines ago I said that happiness comes from within, not because of the surroundings, yet the surroundings can fight that decision of being happy. And so when you decide to be happy, you decide to do all you can to make your surroundings have a good impact on your happiness. Love your family, choose the friends who really care for you, don't just get married for the sake of it, find your soul mate. And it's not just people, you also need to do what you love, to choose the job that you were created to do, not the one that would bring more money or popularity. Find your true talent and make use of it, pamper yourself, take good care of your health. For all this to happen you have to take control of your life, to know exactly what you want and follow it. You have to dare to dream and work hard to fulfill that dream. If anyone has ever told you that being happy is easy, they lied. And the faces of the people you meet everyday is an enough proof. Being happy is hard work, it takes courage, it needs energy, it needs will, it needs thinking and planning, but it is worth every bit of it.

In my humble opinion, these are enough to keep a person happy, but if you want to taste the greatest of all happiness, this will only come with a selfless act. For example, after some social work that you did because you had to, without really wanting. When you see that you've helped a person for nothing in return, that's when you'll find yourself the happiest, when you haven't expected it for a second. After taking a part of your weekend to go to an orphanage when you could've done something a lot more fun, when you see that smile on the children's faces, that's when you'd know what the greatest happiness is. Even when you help someone or say a simple sentence that lights up someone's day without knowing it, that is selfless enough to make you happy. So although happiness comes from within and it's mostly about you, it's also about giving and not waiting for anything in return. Happiness can be found all around you when you let it come out from within you. But the greatest happiness will only be found in the strangest of places when you never expect it. So take control of yourself, your life, and open up to the world, and only then you can be one of the few happy people living on that planet.

** I don't claim to have the secrete of happiness, in fact I don't claim to have the secrete of anything. These words are a mere opinion based on some reading and lots of experience.