We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh. William James
Sometimes, we do ask this question to ourselves, What is happiness? where does it come from? Why do we need it? Well, if the same question is asked to people the majority of the answer will be that happiness is something we opt for and a way of trying to live our life the best way possible. But, happiness as far as meaning is concerned has only one world as its meaning, “Gratefulness”.
What is this gratefulness? Gratefulness is nothing but being ‘satisfied’ with what is present or happening in your life, whether it’s something positive or negative, accepting the whole of it and only plucking the ripe and the sweetest fruits [positive things] which is needed in your life to spread pleasure on your taste buds, why will anyone like to pick up the raw and bitter fruits when there are much better fruits available?. Gratefulness is all about loving the things you have and you respect it, whether it is good or bad, positive or negative, accepting it is important. Gratefulness doesn’t come from happiness, happiness comes from gratefulness. In life, there are many instances where you won’t get what you ‘expected’ and with this, you may get annoyed or frustrated, but if you look it in a broader way you will find someone else hoping to get what you have in which you are not satisfied with it. Therefore, to get happiness one can never find it in material things but, one can only find it if he is willing to accept life as it is.
True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self. Joseph Addison
The expectation thus ruins our chance of being happy and if our expectation is not met we will not live peacefully. So, let go of expectation and cherish each moment and live in the present which is the main factor of keeping us happy.
“Yesterday was history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift, that is why it is known as the present….”
In life, every day we get 86400/- in our ‘Life account’ but, disappears at the end of the day. But, also each day we get a new amount of 86400/- in our life. What would you do? you will obviously think about spending it on things you wanted in life and use it fully and efficiently. Well, this 86400/- is nothing but the number of seconds we have in a day. If we have the wish to spend the money on what we want, why not use each second to keep ourselves happy and ‘use’ it the way we love to!!
Sometimes, in life we fall into situation’s which doesn’t make us feel joyful and happy, but, in life, there is always a way where we can not get ourselves ‘carried away’ by the situation’s we have. Any difficult situation in life is not present to bring us down or to make us worry but to strengthen us and make us into a better person then we were yesterday. Thus, the diagram below which I learned from Shri. Gaur Gopal Das helps us to not get carried away by situations in life and also helps us to get rid of this dangerous word ‘worry’ :
Therefore, happiness depends on how we choose our lives to be and is nothing but gratefulness. Happiness helps our lives by not only make it interesting but also adventurous and blissful. So, make yourself joyful with a smile on your face and love and spend each second with happiness and joy and automatically will spread joy and happiness. After all who doesn’t want to be happy!!
Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it. Lou Holtz
- J Mukesh Kumar
