Translate My Blog To Your Language

Friday, January 1, 2010

What is happiness?

Happiness is transient and is dependent on our personal aspirations and values. Our pursuit for happiness never ends as we might find ourselves switching from happiness to unhappiness from one moment to the next. Based on my personal experience, overall happiness could be stored into our good memories, by trapping every moment of bliss, however small that moment might be.

Happiness like love, must be nourished and protected. We are the sole owners of our happiness and only we can change the things that make us happy or unhappy. Our happiness should be based on our very own feelings—our ability to love and aspirations—our ability to dream without dead ends. As an advocate for war survivors and a survivor myself, I have concluded that in this world, there is much more to laugh than to cry about. Every day we are alive is a reason to smile, every heart beat that takes us closer to the 3 billion heart beats in a lifetime is a reason to feel blessed, and every hug, kind word and kiss we receive from our loved ones is a reason to feel lucky and endlessly happy. Our true happiness depends on us and lies inside our own human spirit. We only need to search inside our souls and if we can’t find it, we need to just look around, particularly at the less fortunate throughout the world and realize that if they are capable of smiling, then so can we.

Overall, true happiness lies in the essence of a positive human spirit. To me there are two kinds of happiness: 1) the type provided by material gains and 2) the type provided by spiritual, emotional and overall self-actualization gains. Both are needed to some extent. Therefore, the key to happiness is simplicity. The simpler the life style and the goals we set for ourselves, the more likely we are to accomplish our goals, and as a result we’ll feel happier with ourselves and our surroundings. This is not to say that we should have a mediocre mentality in order to achieve happiness, in the contrary, we are free to dream and achieve anything we want, just as long as we keep reality alongside.

1 comment:

Lauren said...

Well said! Though, I surely need happiness #1, happiness #2 is what I truely need. Sometimes I catch a glimpse, and even hold onto it for a while. But then the lack of happiness #1 creeps in, and that makes it more difficult to hold onto #2. It's funny how one affects the other.

Beautiful pictures on your blog!