“What Is Happiness” is actually an old post I wrote, originally titled What It Takes To Be Happy, originally published on my now deleted Friendster blogged, and which I dug up from another blog that I posted this in. But no one knows about that blog so I am republishing here.
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Happiness is a choice, and an attitude you can choose. It is not determined by possessions or dependent on conditions, and by no means is it triggered by material or situational prerequisites.
“Learn to let go of the past. What’s done is done; what’s happened cannot be undone. You can choose to live in the past and be haunted by it or live each day remembering lessons learned from it.
Let that faint picture of what or who you were before, fade away; as it wont make any difference today. You are today actually better than yesterday and the days before because you are today’s sum of what you have learned from all your yesterdays combined.
Whatever opportunity comes around, a chance to do or experience something new, don’t hesitate or think twice… grab it! It may be gone before you know it and you’ll forever wonder what might have come out of it. So long as it isn’t something that leaves you missing an appendage, or losing your life or your sanity.
Have a good laugh, boisterous and loud. Don’t be too concerned of what other people think. Don’t live your life gauged against other persons’ measures.
Run, trip and fall flat on your face, but pick yourself up and run again.
Love. Be loved. Lose love and yet not despair for you will surely find love again, if you allow it.
Don’t dwell on things which you have no control over. Lets face it, we are not in control of our life or existence, we only like to think we are. So when things don’t turn out how you would have wanted them, let it be, let it go and look forward to the other surprise that life may have for you.
Try to be kind or less mean, even if it does take an extra effort. You are unaware that the other may be facing a steeper hill than you.
Be kind to your body, the better you treat it the longer it will serve you. Don’t be overly fanatical about it or go overboard in doing so, like trying to prevent yourself from ageing because ageing is just part of life and whether you like or not, it will run its course! You will grow old. You can fight it and be miserable, or accept it with a knowing that to age in acceptance is wise and those that do are bestowed the wisdom of experience.
Be thankful for friends, for friends will disappear like the fading years that pass you by. Life doesn’t get any easier, yet the best part about it is you will always have people like your friends who will see you through.
If you can’t help but be upset or be angry, go ahead and be so for anger is as normal an emotion like all the others. However, don’t be angry forever for it will consume you like wildfire in the brush until nothing is left.
Be kind to animals and all other creatures who don’t mean any harm. Be thankful that you belong to the human race; a living being equipped with the intelligence and facilities to discern, and the ability to possess an awareness of your own existence; and not of a lower specie who’s actions are dictated by natural instinct.
Be happy for another’s success, quite often someone else’s fortune, gain or advancement in life makes us resentful and we wonder “why him and not me”, and are bitter in the belief that we are not as lucky as others are.
Appreciate the otherwise mundane or taken for granted. Stare and be amazed at clear blue skies in daylight and how they couldn’t be near perfect had they been black or red. Be awed by the countless flickering stars on dark nights and wonder about the infiniteness of the galaxy and how in its vastness, it would be remiss to believe that we had the universe all to ourselves.
Live! And appreciate the life that you have been given. It may not be perfect but it’s a non negotiable lease that is non renewable upon termination.
Above all, you have to admit that you can be happy, no matter how bad things get, how deep you have fallen or how low you may go.
You may lose everything that you have, possessions, wealth, stature, health, respect, admiration or freedom. But unless you lose your mind, you will never really lose the ability to choose, and the capacity to decide to be happy… however ridiculous it may seem especially in worldly direness.
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