MY IDEA OF HAPPINESS

Happiness is generally defined as the state of being contented. It is a broad term that cannot have an absolute definition. Different people have different concepts of happiness and different ways to attain it. .All the materialistic things and modern facilities give a temporary pleasure only, they don't give true happiness. My philosophy about happiness tallies with that of H.W. Beecher who once said, "Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." The bird of happiness alights on the shoulders of a self-controlled pure mind who has a balanced and civilized personality.

What makes a person happy at all times? Happiness is also relative - one person may not get any happiness from something, while another person might be very joyful after getting the same thing. Infact, the same thing may bring joy to one and sadness to another person! Is that the way the world goes? Is it that someone has to be sad for someone else to be happy? Or are the sayings "Happiness shared is happiness doubled, sorrow shared is sorrow halfed" really true? I would say in an ideal world, these are the things which we would really like to have - but I doubt we can see these things happening around us very commonly. So, then forgetting about what other's happiness is due to and how we affect that - one can just try and think about what makes oneself happy. I would believe that ultimately, if one is "content" with what one has, one would be happy. And contentment is more a state of mind than the actual material existence of things around oneself. A person can be content in very little and be happy, or keep craving for more and never be happy.

Does "enjoyment" necessarily lead to happiness - I feel sometimes enjoyment can lead to happiness which is just momentory. Long term happiness are the recollection of those special moments in ones life. Infact, that leads to a thought - is it that at any moment when we are feeling sad, somehow if we can think of our happy moments in life, we become happy again? Maybe yes ... but still, we look for many things that would make us happy - precisely the things which we would list in the "fun-filled" or "enjoyable" activities. These could be something as big as going for a long vacation to just roaming around aimlessly in a garden to hanging out with friends to seeing a movie to reading a nice book to listening to good music.

In short, Happiness is all about being content in life, understanding that life is not ideal, nor are the people around you.