What is happiness?
Too often we confuse happiness with an emotion. We do the same thing with love. We confuse love with romance, attraction, and infatuation. By misunderstanding what love truly is, we chase after it and are usually met with a string of disappointments. We do the same thing with happiness. We misunderstand it, so we chase after it only to find it fleeting. Just as true love is far more than a hormonal mating ritual, happiness is far more than a transitory emotion.
True happiness is a perspective, a philosophy and a way of life that exists no matter how we may feel. Happiness IS love. It’s the love for life that we pour into each moment whether blissful or excruciating. It’s the way we embrace our pleasures and our sorrows. Happiness is the hope we nurture when we feel heavy, the humility we hold when we feel light.
Happiness is the gratitude we remember and the ability to see blessings in disguise. Happiness comes from learning lessons from our struggles, and whispering Life’s wisdom to those with ears to hear. Happiness is the courage to resolve our anger rather than run from it or cower in the shadows of fear. It’s the willingness to bless life even in the face of sorrow.
No, happiness isn’t just an emotion, it is something we feel at the deepest part of our soul and the wellspring of our heart. Happiness is the music that rises from within and moves us to sing, dance, write, paint and rejoice, for happiness is the ecstasy, the energy of life itself which surges into every breath we take. Happiness is a friend’s love that murmurs in our heart, no matter the distance, a voice reminding us not to simply exist but to truly live while we have the chance. It’s the invitation and drive to embrace life as an adventure and to explore the unknown. Happiness is letting the mystery of life titillate rather than intimidate us. It’s the light both seen and unseen.
Happiness is our deepest desire, for it is who we are at the core of our being. When we forget happiness, we forget ourselves. When we misunderstand, distort, or offend happiness, we are only confusing, confounding and frustrating ourselves.
To remember happiness is to remember who we are, to realize who we are and to step back on the path of our greatest destiny. And though our destiny may be arduous or lonely at times, happiness is the guide, the guru, and the constant consort that reminds it is worth it. It is the unshakable knowingness that we are exactly who we need to be, and that to live in joy is to walk our path, to rise up to the occasion when destiny calls. To be our best in impossible circumstances.
Happiness is the inviolable agreement Life made with itself, to create…us. The same ecstasy that created us created the Earth and sky, the Moon and oceans, the Sun and mountain meadows. Happiness comes when we honor Life and hold all of Creation holy. It’s our awe at the vastness of space, and the twinkling of the stars that hint of endless stories yet to be told.
Love and joy are not trifles or trinkets to be caged by emotion. They are the true treasures of life itself. The only true currency of life is time, and happiness is the reward of a life well-spent. Happiness is filling this moment, right here and now, with love, gratitude, authenticity, creativity, and kindness.
Want to be happy? Find yourself. Be yourself. Be your very best self. Be a light in the dark, the calm in the storm. Turn your sails into the winds of Life and let it take you on your adventure. Be the Hero of your journey.
And, help others along their way, for happiness is not an isolated event. We all share it. We share this life, this time, this world. The actions of one affect us all. Our misery and joy are the world’s, and the world’s suffering and bliss are ours. To live with happiness is to live with open eyes, open arms and an open heart, to flow with the hurts and cherish all that is good.
Happiness isn’t a way of feeling, but a way of being. The invitation to be happy is always there, for everyone, at all times. All we have to do, is…
Choose.
