True happiness starts with inner peace and satisfaction. The sad reality is that if you ask a lot of people what does happiness means to them, they truly do not know. Happiness is subjective, and takes on many forms for many people. For you, it may mean wealth, your neighbor may view health as the only true means of happiness, and I may view happiness as a real connection with spiritualism.
At the end of the day, whatever makes you happy is your prerogative, as long as you’re true to who you are.
As a child growing up in Jamaica, where it is not very conventional for each household to own a car, my dream was always to buy my car. Then that day came, upon purchasing the car, I was elated. Then days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, then months turned into years.
A car did not make me happy, that moment of seeing my dream come true was an instant gratification and a feeling of reward.
You cannot replace a void with material things. Nor can you have that “I will be happy when…” attitude.
“Happiness is the ability to exist in contentment in a free and detached world.” Rashida Costa
Happiness is a choice. A state of being that is frequently selfishly displayed. It is human nature to show such emotions only when it is suitable to our being. Some people are not happy when things are not going great for them. It is easy for some to be jolly when their bank accounts are loaded, or they got a new promotion, marriage, children, and all other unmentioned major life events.
A different approach is to be happy with where you are now.
Here are five ways you can invite happiness in your life.
1. Develop a newly found respect and appreciation for happiness.
Ask yourself, how it would make you feel if your spouse or child only says I love you when you give them something.
Happiness is a state of being that deserves consistency in your life, not only a mention when it is beneficial to you.
2. Open the doors to possibilities. So often in life we are so stuck in our demise and buried in past experiences that the idea that we can achieve happiness does not seem possible, because that is not a product of our experience. Therefore the more familiar route of dejection becomes customary.
3. Adopt a feeling of self-worth.
It is mind boggling how many people go through life feeling undeserving of the human expression to which they are worthy, simply to be happy. They see happiness as a reward, something they need to earn rather than a just feeling to which they have a right to claim.
4. Treat your happiness as you do your safety.
People will often exercise measurable steps to ensure that they are safe, and will become defensible against anything or anyone that threatens their safety. Notwithstanding their protective nature and their desire to remain safe, these very people will be very nonchalant about their happiness.
Essentially happiness is a component of safety. They both serve as building blocks for each other, and the order is highly subjective.
Not a lot of people would feel safe on an island alone with no other form of life, to the extent that I place reliance upon the idea that you are not the kind of person who’s personality would serve well alone on an island alone without any form of human contact, but you had a bunch of robots or computers to answer to your beckon call 24 seven.
While the idea seems eldritch from where I sit, you may like it for a day or two. Maybe even a month. Then I seriously challenge you much further than that.
See how that works?
Both your safety and happiness could be in question, and again, if you’re weird enough and would enjoy interacting with nothing but robots, so you’re “happy on the island alone” how safe are you really?
5. Be happy in your conscious independent mind.
To reiterate the aforementioned, happiness is not a pill that you take and wait for the effect is my bottom line. It is a choice.
The next time you feel your happiness slipping away, write down these six things and read them aloud.
- Happiness goes where it is wanted and I want and welcome happiness.
- Happiness chose me because I am deserving and worthy.
- Happiness has a place of permanence in my life, and letting it go is not an option.
- Happiness is a price I can afford.
- Happiness is a dependable and great feeling that enters my world freely and will stay with me so long as it is permitted.
- Happiness is my oxygen.
Go on and live life, this is the one time it is ok to be entitled, in light of your happiness.
Follow Rashida Costa at rashidacostaactor.com
