Happiness Comes From Within

I received a message from a follower that asked me to repost an earlier entry for a particular family member to read. So here it is, hope it helps.

Life isn’t the sweetest candy. When I feel like the world is just too heavy, I first always take a deep breath and remember my grandmother. A woman, that no matter what life presented, she always was able to laugh and enjoy life. I always admired that about her, it was not till later in life that I understood that happiness came from a place called ‘self’.

So, how does one become genuinely happy? Step 1 is to love yourself.

A counselor once said that “loving means accepting.”  To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lay a great ounce of courage to be able to discover ways on how to improve your repertoire to recover from our mistakes.

Genuine happiness also pertains to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the question “how to be genuinely happy.”

I believe that life is about finding out about right and wrong, trying and failing, winning and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. Failure, in a person’s life has become as abundant and necessary as air. But this should not hinder us from becoming happy. Every time you exert effort to improve the quality of life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your sick dog, fail on board exams and trying again, life gives you equivalent points for that.

So my sister will understand this. Imagine life as a big score board like those which are used in the NFL. Every time you take a step forward, you score points. Wouldn’t it be nice to look at that board at the end of each game and think to yourself “Whew! I got a point today. I’m glad I gave it a shot.”, instead of looking at it all blank and murmur “Geez, I didn’t even hit a score today. I wish I had the guts to try out.”

Genuine happiness isn’t about driving the hottest car, nor getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest pay. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life doesn’t always go to the fastest, the strongest, and the bravest or not even the best.

Everyone has his own definition of ‘happiness’. Happiness for a writer may mean launching as many best-selling books as possible. Happiness for a basketball rookie may mean getting the rookie of the year award. Happiness for a business man may mean success. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. It’s about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistake and telling yourself “Oh, I’ll do better next time”, you carry with you a flame of strong will power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try – that will make you a genuinely happy person.

When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults,  You pass step 1 in the project “how to become genuinely happy”. For as long as you know how to accept others, you will also be accepted. For as long as you love and know how to love, you will receive love ten folds back.

So one last time the question “how to become genuinely happy?”. I’ll leave you with this great quote- “Most of us know that laughter is the best medicine to life’s aches and pain. But most of us don’t know that the best kind of laughter is laughter over self. Coz then you don’t just become happy… you become free.”

Keep Dancin’  LB