It is argued that one will never be happy if he/she remains searching what happiness entails. It is further argued that one will never live if he/she is looking what life means. Happiness could be perceived as a spiritual thing. Many of us seek to get this treasure and store and keep it permanently in a safe box. When we think of happiness, we think about having good feeling inside ourselves, or sometime we express our feeling about happiness by describing a range of positive emotions, including joy, pleasure, contentment, and satisfaction (Monkton, 23). Happiness is something that makes life seem significant, worth being here, and without there is no meaning of life. As we are humans, we search for seasons of the meaning of life and why we are here. Happiness is the one of those reasons of the meaning of life. However, there are many types of happiness, which are expressed in many ways. Happiness is about giving a love, helping people, motivating the people, being positively, peace, justice. In this case, my concepts about how to be happy are to work, spend time with family and help others.
Besides, my concept of happiness also entails an element of work. Undoubtedly, come to think of it, happiness is a baffling emotion. Life has never been simple and any simple things that puts a smile on an individual’s face promotes a positive spirit for the possibility of goods things to come (Graham, 22). On the same note, happiness has never been permanent, and it is not easily gained and maintained. Perhaps, this becomes of the motivating factors or an impetus for our hard work as we strive to realize our dreams. Working contributes to happiness in various ways, one of them being enabling us acquire cherished lessons and experiences in our life (Ricard, 27). Through this lessons and experiences we can easily sail through the challenges of life with little difficulties whenever we encounter them. Through hard work, we stand a better chance of realizing success in our undertaking. Sometimes it appears that success and happiness goes hand in hand with hard work. However, this is never the case because there are many people who have succeeded in all they could dream of, but still are unhappy. In most cases, people chase success through hard work but end up sacrificing their happiness. In such scenarios, happiness becomes an opportunity cost of success. Therefore, it is important to try and balance between our struggles to attain success and our happiness. We are more likely to be happy if we focus on not our destination, but the journey (Muchnick and Tom, 39-41).
The family is another factor that I have high regards on when it comes to happiness. In fact, our happiness starts from our families, because they are the people we have a strong bond with. Despite the challenges we might be facing, our families will always be there for us and they never abandon us. Personally, my family has always been supportive to me. I feel appreciated and loved with my family and being around them gives me happiness. A large percentage of our life time is spent with our families (Muchnick and Tom, 45-47). In fact, the family forms the basis on how we relate to other people because our relationship with our friends and other people in general is a reflection of the socialization aspects we have learnt from our families. One can establish good relationship with the outside world, but without family love and good relationship, he/she will not experience happiness because our families and our happiness are interconnected in one way or the other. Therefore, it is difficult to describe the concept of happiness without factoring in the contributions our families makes towards our happiness (Graham, 27-29).
Lastly, our happiness is augmented by appreciating ourselves and what we have. We should appreciate and accept reality and to enjoy the reality to the fullest. Nevertheless, it is argued that acceptance is one of the most challenging attributes to learn, but a quality that is vital if one is to experience contentment (Keith, 31-33). Perhaps, the attribute of acceptance has a similar influence in our happiness has gratitude. To be happy, means having gratitude not only to other people, but also to ourselves is very important as far as our happiness is concerned. In most cases, we do not show gratitude to ourselves, and this not affects our happiness, but also interferes with nurturing our self-respect (Monkton, 43). Therefore, to be happy we should start by appreciating who we are, because this would boost our self-esteem and an encouragement to work towards achieving our goals and objectives in life.
Finally, there is no single description of what happiness is. Various descriptions of happiness have been put forth, depending on the perceptions of those describing it. Perhaps, the challenge in describing happiness emanates from the perception that it is difficult to understand what it really means without assessing its opposite aspect means. From my perspective, the concept of happiness entails various elements. Such elements include the way we relate to other people, always working hard to achieve our goals and objectives, the role that our family play in our life, as well as showing acceptance and gratitude to ourselves as well as those around us. Happiness, a state of mind, and it is different from materials things, which is why it is difficult to attain and maintain.
Works Cited
Graham, Carol. The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press, 2011. Print.
Keith, Kent M. Do It Anyway: Finding Personal Meaning and Deep Happiness by Living the Paradoxical Commandments. Novato, Calif: New World Library, 2008. Internet resource.
Monkton, Edward. Happiness. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Pub, 2010. Print.
Muchnick, Marc, and Tom Champoux. No More Regrets!: 30 Ways to Greater Happiness and Meaning in Your Life. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011. Internet resource.
Ricard, Matthieu. Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. Internet resource.
