Happiness depends upon ourselves. Aristotle
Happiness is what most of us chase and then feel frustrated that it keeps eluding us most of the time. Truth be told ‘happiness is an inside thing’ and so it is pointless chasing it all over the place for it resides within you. Perhaps the key to finding happiness is ‘your attitude’. Everyone has a new day a new challenge a new problem and a new opportunity. Happiness is your belief that each of these can be grasped by you and turned into a happy experience.
Troubles and problems are actually questions in search of an answer and not exclamations of despair. When we can comprehend the question and look at it in the right perspective we can definitely seek the correct answer and like a jigsaw puzzle being solved put the pieces in place and enjoy the fruits of success. Many of us though, see things in a very myopic manner and consequentially are unable to see the big picture and obviously cannot figure out the right pieces to fit the puzzle. Imagine suddenly losing your job because of an abrupt layoff declared by the management. If one were to panic and blame yourself or the management or fate and keep brooding over it there will be only panic and fear. Most times we keep wondering and asking ‘Why me?’ In desperation you even question your abilities. On the contrary if one were to accept the reality and then focus on getting around the problem many a time you will come across numerous opportunities that you never visualized. ( See the try this section to read a wonderful story that illustrates this).
While happiness holds the key to the door of happiness, you need to seek happiness in order to know where the door is. Being positive and remaining optimistic alone will not bring us happiness. There is effort required too. We need not waste our energies chasing happiness in the pleasures and vices of the world for they are but a temporary refuge of the desperate. Instead if we go and seek happiness in whatever we do or whatever hand fate deals us we can easily identify the seeds of happiness which we can then plant within us. It is important to note that when we seek it implies that we know what we are looking for and that we can recognize it when we see it. Many of us confuse happiness with instruments that can bring happiness like money, social status, power and the like. Real happiness is when we are able to identify our needs and satisfy them to our hearts content. Anything more that we crave is greed and greed is perhaps the biggest poison that kills happiness.
If we make a conscious effort to seek happiness and align our attitude with the reality of our lives we would have found both the door to happiness and the keys that open it. Within us lies an enormous treasure that multiplies as we share it. After all in sharing our happiness we double our own happiness quotient.
Remember: “The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be” Marcel Pagnol
Try this:
- Here is a wonderful story titled The Verger by Somerset Maugham that is interesting, for its style, its contents and the lessons for us . Click the link to read it. http://sinden.org/verger.html
- If you think you have all the troubles in the world have a look at this video. Maybe your troubles don’t seem so tough afterall. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjoN0cF6FiQ
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