To Be Happy

Written by: Amy Li

Tinaxo13 / Pinterest

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.

What does a smile mean? 

It is easy to interpret a smile when someone is young because the answer is simple: It would mean happiness. Things get complicated, however, once the smile comes from someone older. Does it mean happiness? Is it mocking? Or even yet is it a shield behind which the actual emotions are hiding?

The ambiguousness of the meaning of a smile is not unusual. As we age, emotions and feelings become more complex, not to mention the seemingly endless amount of names for the new ones. 

And as with every gain, there is a loss. With the gain of emotions, the loss in this transaction is our definition of happiness.

When we are young, it is very easy to be happy: We are only aware of what is happening at that moment, not aware or worried about whether people are judging us, and things that make us happy are simple such as food or new toys. As people age, the world becomes more complex and the mind begins to focus more on future events instead of the present: “I have food now but will I be able to buy some tomorrow?”, “I love this new bracelet, but did I spend too much money?”, “My friend is so nice and I’m happy to be friends, but how long will it take for my friend to stop liking me, and did I do something annoying today?”, are just a few. Now, being happy means being happy about something and then becoming doubtful if that something is actually good or whether that something will suddenly hurry away from us.

Confronted with such a reality, it is easy to understand just how hard it is to call yourself truly happy and thus, after a bit, it becomes hard to even know what happiness really is, which throws us into a cycle of uncertainty and turbulence.

But being happy doesn’t have to be so difficult. Nor does the concept of happiness have to be obscure. 

Happiness is a choice.

No matter what we have to go through, we can choose to be happy. No matter what we have to do, we can choose to be happy. No matter the circumstances, happiness is only a choice away. 

It is important to note, however, that being happy does not necessarily mean wide smiles, cries of happiness, and jumping for joy. Happiness can be instead the feeling of peacefulness deep down that assures that obstacles will come and go and it is okay to sometimes feel bad. Happiness encourages one to keep going and know that even though the feeling of ‘being happy’ may fade in the next day or two, it will always come back in the end, even if there are, and will be, imperfect days.

There are too many things out of our control during life. What we can do, however, is realize this and make a resolution to do what we can and to our best ability. We, instead of focusing on what could happen, should focus on what can happen by what we do right now. We can think about things that are in our power, such as how to improve ourselves and find happiness in just trying. There will always be joy to find in the simple things in life, always joy to find in little achievements, and always joy looking forward to the next day.

There can always be a reason to be happy.

Sources

Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne (1926)

Your Happiest You by Judy Woodburn