Happiness — mythological creature or a choice?

Happiness, what is it? Why everyone is chasing it? What does it bring us? Why do we sometimes tell ourselves “if I get there or get this thing, I will be happy” or “life is hard, I just want to be happy?”?

I am not an exclusion to this, I think it is some mythological creature that everyone is trying to measure, assess, chase and desperately want. Perhaps it is time to dig in and understand what it is as every single person has its own interpretation.

You might start asking yourself what brings me joy and happiness, what can actually make me happy, etc. Yes, it is definitely a good start but let me help you with understanding a few things about happiness.

First and foremost, happiness is a choice. It is a choice we all have. The quote “we see the world not as is rather as we are” is a perfect summary. If we choose to be sad, we will see the world in bleak colors and everything might depress us. However, I am not going to tell you to be a happy zombie that does not feel anything else but happiness. No. We need to feel all the emotions in order to understand ourselves. We need to go through sorrow so we can understand the other side of the spectrum. We need to see all the colors of our lives and there are many, so why don’t we awaken ourselves to see it all? Start noticing all the colors and see how you respond to them. Not react but respond. That is the key difference to remember. How do you respond to little things that surround you?

This brings me to the second point about happiness. Happiness can be found in small things, but we need to have it often in order to fuel our souls with this emotion. In other words, we feel better by getting small doses of joy throughout the day versus one huge portion once a month. Think about a kid that loves chocolate. I am sure the kid will prefer eating chocolate every day in smaller portions and not to wait for an entire month to eat an entire chocolate bar. Well, some kids prefer to wait for a month, but I don’t think this is how the majority of a population think.

From my personal experience, I love going on walks and noticing little things like birds chirping, rays of sunshine on my face, and/or feeding ducks and squirrels. These are such little thing but all of them always put a smile on my face and make me feel content. Which leads to me to the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude is attitude we can have towards life in general, which directly correlates to our state of mind. If we are grateful, we start noticing all these little things that bring us joy and we are becoming grateful to have them. It becomes a vicious circle between happiness and gratitude. So why not to join this whirlpool?

It sounds so simple but for some reason it can be hard on certain days, so start small and look around to see what you notice. Notice how you feel and choose to be awakened to experience the world as is by simply being yourself.