It is a new week and the last day in October, the year is running to an end and I am grateful to the almighty God for the grace he has bestowed upon us to be among the living today. I would love to wish everyone a happy new week and I pray that we continue to flourish in all our endeavors.
Happiness is a feeling every human is blessed with, it comes in a freeform and we have the power as individuals to mould it into what we want. The ability to reshape it is what makes the difference between things that makes every individual happy.
The situation of things in the world today has made happiness a rare thing among people, the topic "happiness" is something many people wouldn't like to talk about. I do not blame them because even though happiness is free, you won't expect a hungry man to say he is happy with an empty stomach.
Happiness is indeed free because it can't be bought, it is in us but we need to allow it to flourish. We all have different definitions for happiness and I define mine as a state of mind you put yourself when you feel things are falling in place for you.
Happiness might be a simple word but it is huge, there are a lot of things above and beneath it, that sum up to birth that feeling.
A lot of us have defined happiness wrongly and it has put us in a complicated position in life. People believe in wealth and material things to be the elements that trigger happiness but it isn't completely so. I wouldn't say they aren't part of the things that would make everyone happy but they aren't the only things we need to be happy.
I use to think wealth was everything when I was younger, I grew up learning about wealthy people committing suicide and I asked myself, what else do they want?
They have luxury cars, houses, designer wear, and accessories but these things weren't enough because they aren't the basic reason for happiness.
Earlier this year, I was at a party. The environment was very uncomfortable to the extent that I couldn't eat there.
The people in the neighborhood weren't bothered, the happiness on their faces while the party was on got me curious. If I don't feel comfortable coming there once, how do they cope with living there every day? I got to know that the government once gave them houses in another part of Lagos but they turned it down.
These people do not have anything but they are happy, do you know why?
Wealth or material things aren't the basic reason for happiness, the things beneath and beyond happiness matter most.
Contentment
The people I mentioned earlier are contented with what they have and that's one of the biggest elements that happiness.
A contented man will always be happy because they appreciate how far they have come in life. Being contented with what you have doesn't mean that you don't have dreams or you aren't pursuing to be great, it means you appreciate every position you find yourself in on your journey to your destination.
Being content is one of the things that has helped me nurture that feeling of happiness in me. I don't covet, I don't put pressure on myself, I don't chase after irrelevant things, I am completely off the trend and I am happy.
Myself/family/friends well being
The well-being of myself, my family, and my friends is another thing that makes me happy. I love to see everyone happy, I guess happiness is contagious that's why seeing them happy makes me happy as well.
I believe life is good when we are all doing well not in terms of riding expensive cars. Seeing people doing okay with the basic needs of life makes me happy. As long as we are alive, we will be able to achieve more than just the basic needs of life.
There is so much joy in seeing others happy or playing a part in the things that make them happy.
Doing away with negativity or negative feelings.
Harboring negative feelings or thoughts deprives me of happiness so I do away with negativity. I try to be as positive as possible even in a tight situation.
You can't be nursing hate in your heart and expect happiness to be in that same place, you just have to let go of every sort of negative thought or feeling.
If you have heard Burna Boy's song titled "common person", you will understand my opinion about happiness.
Our happiness belongs to us and we must cherish it. No one has a perfect life and if you are seeing people being happy despite going through a lot, it means they have great hope of overcoming the challenges.
We don't need to be the richest, most influential, or most famous person in the world before we can be happy. The weird thing about being happy is that, if you can't nurture happiness when you are at the lowest point in life, it might be difficult to nurture it when you are at your peak in life.
If you choose not to be happy while struggling, there are higher chances of not being able to become happy even when your dreams come true.
Being happy is a powerful feeling, it has a great impact on our health physically and mentally. It is important that choose happiness always, there will be bad days but we can always bounce back quickly.
This is so true and real. I even went as far as listening to burner boys song "common person". Your happiness is your. We all have to be careful in life happiness is Gold.
Happiness is indeed a treasure that we all must value and do our best to protect it. Burna Boy nailed the song, our happiness should never be traded for anything
Am telling you. Happiness is more Gold
In my post, I talked about how Aristotle defined happiness to mean an end and not a goal in human existence. Those people owning wealth and material things, though, achieve happiness for a while because those things are means of getting such a feeling and they will still continue to desire more because Abraham said human needs are insatiable but when a person has gone to the extent of being happy even with the ones he has, it is called contentment and that is the greatest happiness for such a person.
For me, seeing my family and also seeing mylef as a better person each day, having positive thoughts in me makes me happy.
Contentment plays a huge role in being happy and I agree on the fact that you don’t need to own the world before you are happy.
Being happy with little guarantees how well you will be happy when you are big.
Indeed... Happiness belongs to us, and the sooner we get intentional about it, the easier we would find it to get as time goes on. Because it is one of the most important facets of life, and what also gives meaning to life.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
You are right bro, being happy plays a significant role in the life of every human. Another fact is that happiness belongs to us, if we choose not to be then it will be hard for someone to make us happy
Good evening George and long time just came across your post after a long time and guess I miss your writing.
Hope you are doing good? And I love the way you view happiness and sure if we want to be happy we have to be contented with what we have and annihilate negative feelings.
Hi Mercy, I am doing great. I have been blogging with my PC for sometime now so I am not always online. I hope you are doing great as well. Contentment and avoiding negativity will definitely help us preserve our happiness
My dear, what else do they want? Proof positive their happiness is not in money and happiness is bigger than wealth.
I enjoyed reading your article dear. Thanks so kindly for sharing beautifully