Happiness. The emotion nearly every human on this planet is trying to pursue. When you hear the word happiness, joy, smiles, and anything that’s the mere opposite of sadness might come to mind.
Maybe you’re remembering an experience or the taste of your favorite meal. Well, is that all there is to it?
Is the one thing that the entire world is determinedly searching for described so easily? Happiness is an extensive concept that can’t be expressed in a few simple words.
Everyone gains happiness in their own ways. Some may receive happiness from partying and blasting music with friends, while others may receive it from playing board games with family. However, is this truly happiness… or is it just pleasure?
Pleasure is an emotion that makes you “happy” and keeps you smiling for a short period of time.
Partying, listening to music, playing video games, hanging out with friends, and other activities will provide you with short-term happiness. However, these moments will never equate to true happiness.
Don’t believe me? Here’s an example. When you’re out with your friends having the time of your life, you think, ‘I couldn’t be happier than this!’
Regardless of the thoughts and emotions, you experienced at the moment when you arrive home, separate from your friends, your happiness has vanished.
You started missing the moments and wished you could go back to them.
When you miss something or someone, you are undergoing a feeling of loneliness.
As a universal fact, we should all unanimously agree that loneliness is not a feeling of happiness.
Now you’re probably thinking that if activities bestow you with short-term happiness, then pursuing hobbies must provide you with true happiness.
Nope. Although being interested and involved in hobbies do give you contentment and a sense of achievement, its duration is medium-term.
Well, what does that mean?
Hobbies are a passion. They give you a passionate feeling, leading to happiness, but it is not true happiness.
Passion can never be true happiness because it doesn’t last forever. One day you’ll be passionate about one thing, and the next day you’ll be passionate about something else.
If something provides you with true happiness, you can never be unsatisfied with it; hobbies are something that you can easily get tired of.
When you were younger, you probably had a hobby like collecting things; it was your passion. Nevertheless, as you grew older, your passion gradually faded.
You developed a different hobby, dropping the old one behind. This new hobby eventually gave you happiness instead of the previous one.
As a result, you weren’t passionate about collecting things wherever you went.
Notice how the duration of the happiness that the hobby provided you with was medium-term? It lasted quite a while, but it did not last forever.
Well, if neither activities (pleasure) nor developing hobbies (passion) are true happiness, then what is happiness? How do I find it? Where do I look for it? Over there? Over here? Where?
Don’t look all around you. Look right in front of yourself. True happiness is right in front of our eyes, but look at our foolishness; we still search for it everywhere.
We search for it in games. We search for it in music. We search for it in friends. We search for it in the family. We search for it while traveling.
We search and search and search in the hope to encounter one thing — just one thing — that’ll give us all the happiness in the world.
True happiness is not something you can search for and find. It isn’t hiding deep down in a lost-and-found bin. It’s right there, along your journey. You experience it in every moment of that journey.
Purpose. The process of enjoying and focusing on your journey is what is known as purpose.
You must find a purpose in your life. Something to live up to. Accomplish your dreams, but focus on the journey to them, too.
The key is to set your goals and focus on the way there, not the result. Enjoy every bit of the adventure life takes you on, no matter how difficult it is.
Let’s take a roller coaster ride. The most fun part is the most difficult part.
Watching the ride from the outside, everyone might say “that’s so difficult”, but you still ride it. Why? Because it’s the best part and provides you with the most happiness.
Another major key is to not detest your work. If you ride a roller coaster with a negative attitude, you’re going to say that the ride was horrible; never mind how wonderful it really was.
Your negative attitude ruined the entire experience for you. Similar to life, you must learn to enjoy your work, not loathe it. Enjoy the experience.
In reality, life cannot always be wonderful with everything going your way. There are going to be numerous moments that sadden you; however, this is also a part of the process.
Sadness is a key component of happiness. Happiness is experienced when there is sadness. Without sadness, there is no happiness.
This is because you need to undergo the feeling of sadness in order to know what happiness feels like.
If everything in life went perfectly and you were always “happy”, there would be no feeling of happiness. Happiness would be normalized and thus would not be longed for. We only know what we want when it’s taken away from us.
Gold is a precious metal that everyone desires. Why? Because it is rare. Not everyone possesses it. Meanwhile, plastic is a common thing that you would never be excited to acquire.
Plastic is an everyday item that everyone can easily access. As a result, you don’t have the wish to obtain plastic. True happiness is really similar to this.
If everyone is happy all the time, then no one would be looking for ways to attain happiness. Consequently, feelings of sadness are crucial to true happiness.
Happiness lies in the journey, not only in the result. Learn to enjoy the journey. Love what you do and you’ll attain true happiness. Don’t seek for happiness in pleasure or passions, instead, find purpose.
The moment you find purpose, you will experience true happiness.
Your happiness won’t be based on hobbies or parties. They’ll be based on you. You are the source of true happiness. Enjoy your adventure.
Life is an adventure full of ups and downs, but in the end, you’ll look back and think to yourself “I did it! I achieved my dreams and found the purpose of my life. I have finally experienced true happiness.”
Works Cited
Manghani, Shiti Rastogi. “I Trained for Happiness.” Medium, The Startup, 24 June 2019, medium.com/swlh/i-trained-for-happiness-d61d6875b242.
“RVAGE – Purpose of Life.” YouTube, uploaded by Scantraxx, 12 April 2017, https://youtu.be/xbQg-E1xUKQ
Study Links. “Different Types of Happiness.” Study Links, 19 Sept. 2018, studylinks.com/different-types-of-happiness/.
Written By Anish Agarwal
I am a freshman at the Charter School of Wilmington. I reside in Delaware and I wish to spread meaningful messages to people. It is my goal to ensure that as many people as possible understand the true meaning of life. I love writing articles because while writing them, I learn so much myself. Every new article I write provides me with more knowledge about the true meaning of life. If you have any questions or suggestions, email me at anish2006.agarwal@gmail.com.
Edited By Nikki Piedad
