WHAT IS HAPPINESS?

I want to be happy. We all want to live a happy life right? 

But when you truly think about happiness and what it means to you, you'll realize that happiness is not a goal. I mean do you know or have ever heard of someone who "reached happiness", like a constant state of being?

As far as I know... A goal is something you set, you work towards and can achieve.

Some people are overall happier with their lives than others, some feel happiness more often then others, and some have turned their lives around for the better and feel happier.

Let's try to understand what happiness means and where it comes from. Happiness among sadness, anger, disgust, anticipation, excitement, shame, fear, love & co. is an emotion. 

Emotions are pretty much the representatives of our belief system, a reaction to our feelings. We all feel emotions, yes also the toughest guys on earth do, and I'm glad you do and are not experiencing a depression. However you can have two people describe the exact same feeling and yet label it with a different emotion.

Emotions come from deep inside, the basic emotions like happy, sad, surprise, fear, anger are emotions we were born with. From the day you are born you begin the journey of emotions, a baby will smile in one second and cry in the next. Over time we learn about our emotions and we become better and better at recognizing and finally controlling them. We even develop the skill to hide emotions, since we humans are best at recognizing patterns and imitating other people, we learn to fake emotions and you might even know how to manipulate yourself with that. Sometimes we are so good at it, that we forget about the initial feeling.

Back to our feeling: Happiness

Our history, our baby self, the rawest version of us tells a lot about human nature. Emotions come and go and even though you have the ability to suppress or change them, the trigger, the feeling doesn't.

I truly think that happiness is something you can't hold on to forever. 

It comes and it goes and that's ok. That's life and it would actually be pretty boring if everything was perfect all the time. In fact problems are what makes you feel alive, the great feeling of accomplishment, of finding the right solution, only comes from a problem, struggle, "bad feelings". I know this sounds like basic knowledge, kind of like "In order to have one you must have experienced the opposite", but isn't it great to be reminded that it is healthy to not feel happy all the time... 

Now you might think I'm crazy and let me make this clear again, I love to be happy. I want to experience as many happy moments in my life as possible, BUT I also try to embrace and enjoy the moments where I don't feel that way, because in the next moment I get back up and remind myself that I have every reason to be happy, I am healthy and safe and if I'd make a list of reasons why I should or shouldn't be happy, I have way more reasons to feel great than down. 

Some might disagree with me, but I believe that emotions in general are not meant to be goals. Sadness, happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, anticipation, excitement, fear, love are emotions that we have in us, they come and go. It's important to be aware of them and overcome one with the other. 

Happiness is an inside job 

...that includes your ups in life just like your downs. It's what you choose happiness to be. If you stick it to one particular thing, thinking "If I have this, or when I get there, or once I am ...then I'll be happy" you are keeping yourself away from true happiness. I love this quote by Jim Carrey

Happiness is not a thing. 

It can hit you right now, if you allow to. Give happiness the chance to get to you, without your goals, because guess what... If you are determined to reach a goal in your life you are going to make it happen either way, but which way do you like better, happy or unhappy? Allow yourself to enjoy life, no matter where you AND no matter where you're going, because happiness comes from within.

Your life is beautiful, count your blessings and I know that you will find at least ONE reason to smile and be happy right now in this exact moment.

As always I appreciate your feedback and thoughts on this topic. 

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Much love,

- Mrs.Steemit