Most of the answers will be – The feeling when you achieve something, that feeling of satisfaction, of joy like you want to dance. This sounds like Happiness is an objective, If I get this I will be happy. This means that if you do not get you become unhappy! Is this the happiness what we want in our lives?
I am talking about the happiness which stays weather you get or do not get what you wanted, happiness which stays even if you do not get your own way. Happiness which does not depend on the things that you achieve or do not achieve. Please do not get me wrong, I do not mean to say that one should just sit back and not go after your work, nor do I mean that one should not put in all the efforts trying to achieve your objectives. I simply mean that being happy should be above all this.
Happiness for me means a state when you are at ease even in most difficult situations when you are not disturbed or stressed with anything or anyone. A state where you choose to be happy and at peace while you go about doing your regular work/chores etc.
Does this sound like something that you want too? If you think you will be happy when you achieve something like a raise or a milestone or some project well the news is you will never be happy because once you reach there you will make new goals and once again start working towards happiness and thus making it an unachieveble task.
Maybe I can explain better with an example – Mr. X is suffering from anxiety issues he cannot sleep, cannot stay alone, is scared of stepping out of the house and keeps fussing about his children. Mrs. X takes him to a healer and tells him to cure her husband and says even if he gets better with one of the issues she will be happy. The healer does the treatment and when they come for the next visit he asks the wife how is he? Wife says It is all the same just that he can sleep in the night, and she hopes he gets less anxious then she will be happy. Next week again they visit and the healer asks the same thing and the answer is well he can sleep and is less anxious but if he starts to step out of the house she will be happy. You can already guess she will never be happy!
Happiness is not an objective it is a state of being, it should be with you weather you get what you want or do not get what you want. When things going your way and when nothing goes your way.
How to achieve this state? It is not tough, you just need to change the way you think, from negative to positive, from pessimist to optimistic, from hopelessness to hopeful and from despair to faith.
For more details watch out for my next post – “How to start working towards happiness”
Happiness Path 