What is happiness? It is the inner state of positive emotions and feelings. It is a harmony between physical and spiritual world. We are happy when we enjoy our social life, work, family and we have enough alone time to renew within. For each of us happiness is something different. To define happiness is harder than to be happy. Because happiness is an emotion, a way of thinking, feelings and life itself. It is not something we can understand, have a recipe and just make it. Happiness must be discovered by ourselves. Happiness is an experience in which we can understand more, be ourselves and learn gratitude.
But why it is so hard to be happy? Is it because we don’t live in this very moment and become disappointed about the past or worried about future?
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust
1. We live in the past or future.
There is always something to be disappointed about in the past. The mistakes grow bigger day by day and eat us from the inside. They can destroy us and take away the will to live, to challenge and achieve. We become afraid from the future, loss and mistakes. Fears overtake our will and energy to be and live.
Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future.
William Wordsworth
2. We don’t live in this moment.
If we don’t live in the moment, we can’t notice the blessings and miracles around. We miss opportunities and lose the potential of every day.
Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.
Wayne Dyer
3. We live in rush.
And then we start to live in rush. We try to runaway from yesterday and chase the future and live it as fast as possible being afraid of failures and unknown.
We’re so busy watching out for what’s just ahead of us that we don’t take time to enjoy where we are.
Bill Watterson
4. We forget to appreciate and be thankful.
When we are a constant rush we forget to be appreciative and thankful for what we had, have and will have. We can’t be kind, gentle and positive with other people and express gratitude.
Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
Voltaire
5. We compare ourselves with others and want what they have.
When we start to compare our lives and ourselves with other people, we think that we will be happy with what they have, doing what they do, but it’s rarely true and often, we don’t see the unhappiness behind of a lot of what our neighbor might have.
How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbour says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.
Marcus Aurelius
6. We don’t know what we truly want.
To be happy is to understand the point of life. If we don’t take time to feel it within and try to become fulfilled with something that others do, we end up feeling empty and lost. We can’t be happy or find happiness if we don’t know where we are going. Each moment wanting something else.
A lot of people get so hung up on what they can’t have that they don’t think for a second about whether they really want it.
Lionel Shriver
7. We lose reality.
Sometimes it is easier to hide from reality and forget about anybody and indulge in fantasies and virtual world. To take a look at our life and if there is something we want to change and have different and go for it. Not to hide from problems or pretend everything is alright. But have a clear vision where we are right now and where we want to be and what stand in the middle. We can have a big dreams, but without action it is just a fantasy.
One of the greatest moments in anybody’s developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.
Norman Vincent Peale
8. Our priorities are messed up.
We have to find balance between living for ourselves and for others. It is easier not to take responsibility for our life and spend each day for others than to realize what we want and set up our needs in first place. What is more important for us – our inner world or put in order the outer world?
Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.
Stephen R.Covey
Happiness is to know what we want, see clear steps to achieve it and embrace each day with gratitude and faith. Choose to make this day as happy as possible and be in the moment. Notice how much there is to be happy and find the key to never lose your happiness but create it pure and rich in colours.
Featured photo credit: Sad lonely woman walking alone into the woods via shutterstock.com
