What is Happiness?

Published 10 Apr 2017

Introduction

We live in a material world. Everything that our eyes conceive is physically material. This is the reason why most people would claim that happiness in this world is hard to achieve. On the contrary, I believe that happiness can be easily achieved depending on the person’s ability to find happiness and contentment in something. Contentment and personal fulfillment can be two of the major determinants if a person is happy or not. The definitions range from the state of feeling joy or satisfaction. However, in my opinion, I believe that human happiness will always be subjective in all aspects.

Most of the time happiness can be achieved in the simplest ways. Most people nowadays are too busy with their careers, businesses, education and problems that they tend to forget to appreciate some small things in life. It might sound weird but whenever I’m alone, whether walking to school or back home, I try to observe all the things that I lay my eyes upon. The trees—they try to shade the road for me. Their falling leaves would always remind me to look up to say hi. The wind—they try to make me feel comfortable walking. Their playful stunts with the falling leaves would always bring a smile on my face. The sun—it greets me in the morning and assures me in the afternoon that he would be back early the next day. The moon—it makes me feels secured to sleep at night. They might be just illusions in my everyday life but their presence affects me greatly. Life is good because I have them to accompany me in this journey. Happiness can also come from things or people that one value in life. I, for example, value many things in life—my family, friends, teachers, and every little thing that is around me. Family always comes first, they say. Without any doubt, I agree. Most kids my age would complain about life because they have fighting parents, bullying siblings, adulterous father or mother and so forth.

They could not understand that life is not perfect. Life is not full of blessings which are always available for you to enjoy. Life without problems is not good. What is the point of it being called a journey if one is not entitled to solve its never-ending puzzles? Life without struggles is boring. How can you learn and grow if you don’t have anything to resolve? Sometimes happiness can be rooted upon the ability of a person to solve his or her personal dilemmas. Once a problem is solved, the presence of happiness is always evident. There is another particular thing in life that I hold with utmost importance which I believe also contributes to a person’s happiness: Memories. In the journey of life, we are fortuned to gather as much memories as we can so we always make it a point to create meaningful ones. After all, we would lose everything as we die, but at the end of the trail, we have our memories as legacies which are much more rewarding than golden trophies.

Conclusion

The things that makes a person happy does not necessarily mean that they can also bring happiness to others. Life is complex and so are people. Everyone is unique. Everyone is equipped with their own standards of living and happiness. Happiness is not universal. Its roots are not always applicable to everyone but the most important thing that a person should remember is that real happiness can never be achieved from material things alone, they are often just temporary. Most of the time happiness comes from within—with the help of a person’s ability to see things in a positive light.

Did it help you?