HOW TO KEEP OURSELVES HAPPY?

According to Webster’s Dictionary, “happiness is a state of well-being and contentment.”

Every person has his/her own idea of what happiness is and regarding the best way to achieve it. Some people feel the source of happiness is wealth, some say rank and position, some think it is educational achievements, while others say Fame. Hence, everyone tries to find it desperately in their own way.

Like every person’s thinking is distinctive, so is their approach unique. Wealth is the most associated element with happiness. Almost everyone thinks of it as the primary constituent of happiness, thus, intertwining the two as though without wealth there is no happiness. Hence, almost everyone is engrossed in the acquisition of wealth.

How happy must be those people who own business empires, properties and large bank deposits?

Many indeed are those who are suffering from an almost permanent lack of peace of mind they have over their wealth of the fear of political turmoil, market movements etc. Not only do they end up suffering from tensions, heart attacks but also deaths. Understanding happiness and seeking it has nothing to do with acquisition of wealth.

Neither has it do anything with rank and position. Any person holding a position or rank knows the responsibilities that come with it and that the consequences if he does not conduct his affairs well on the basis of justice and moral standards. He would suffer from agonies, fear and insecurity of life and position.

Isn’t happiness actually supposed to be peace of mind and contentment?

If knowledge and scientific research are the true essence of happiness then the most learned man should be the happiest. Is he really? If yes, then every doctor, professor, lawyer must be happy in this world. Then is happiness in fame? If it is, then how do we hear of artists and sportsmen who take drugs and die?

Happiness is in US and can be achieved by finding it in us itself. It is in true faith, in sound belief that fills the heart with comfort, reassurance and contentment and makes man feel that he has a strong relationship with the creator who knows best. It is in being kind to others, in renunciation of too long-term hopes and grieves of the past, in the freedom from fear and anxiety, in avoiding sins and crimes, ill-will and pessimism.

Sometimes, when I sleep in my room, I am not all disturbed by the rolling noise of cars and their loud honks. However, the sound of a footstep or a whisper inside my room would wake me up. What makes me endure rumbling noises of cars though a whisper or footstep would rouse me from my sleep?

It is because sensation is like a light when on, makes things around you visible whether they are pleasing or displeasing to you, and when it is off you fail to hear the noises in the street though they are louder. You heard the low whisper in your room because you diverted your sensation and attention to it while you missed other sounds because you kept them out of your perception despite their loudness, so they disappear as do big things in darkness.

Why not divert your attention and sensation from al discomforts of life? Not all discomforts penetrate into your heart. Only what YOU allow willingly will ender like a king who allows an enemy into his fortress by leaving a hole in its wall. Hence, why not strengthen and fortify ourselves against pains and discomforts.

-Maazia Mani