In Search for Happiness.

At 9, visiting the acuarium.

When people talk about their objectives or goals in life, most will say something like "I just want to be happy". A lot of people want to become happy; to find happiness, and no matter what they do it always seems far away. This is because happiness is not something you need to get or win. What joy can exist in the present if you can always get a better car, better clothes, be fitter, have a better job, better relationships, etc. So happiness is always away, always in the future. 

Happiness is something you feel, it's within you, here, now. In the present.

Happiness as defined by science, is the absence of serious genetic deformations. Poets think it is beauty itself and philosophers define it as the absence of pain and/or fear. But let's not forget happiness' true nature. An emotion. 

By defining happiness as an emotion, I am suggesting that, like all emotions, it is ephemeral and therefore the first person to reach unhappiness will be the one who intends to be happy all the time. We must change our conscious attitude toward emotions.  We continue to think that happiness or unhappiness, joy and misfortune depend on others. When I believe that the secret of happiness lies within ourselves.

We can actually create more suffering in our lives by trying to avoid or suppress difficult emotions. As the Buddha said "Life is suffering". It sounds horrible I know, but life is not just suffering! It's also wonderful! Personally, I think the Buddha's philosophy is a reminder that life is not, and should't be just easy, comfortable and pain free. We need to accept  that death, heartbreaking, frustration, sickness, disappointment and fear are also a part of life. 

Try to embrace imperfection, to let go of this belief that life should be a certain way. Open your heart to uncertainty. Since I started to do that I don't fight or ignore negative emotions anymore, instead I embrace them, because I know that they are here now, but that they will go. And it's also a healing experience that makes happiness and all the other positive emotions all that much better. And the end result is peace, which stays with me always present, Even when underlined by the chaos of all my emotions.