Usually, it takes a lot of time to realize this precious recipe for happiness. Only you can make yourself joyful.
Why does it take so many efforts to understand this simple yet elusive recipe for happiness? Why are we always waiting for someone special to make us thrilled? For sunny weather that would boost a good mood? Why are we waiting for that very beautiful dress to feel fabulous instead of feeling yourself already terrific in your favorite jeans?
There are lots of ways to be happy, but the dispirited mindset we have today stems from our childhood. Let us be honest: when we were kids, our parents were responsible for our happy life. They took care of us, knew what was good for us and did their best for us to feel joyful.
Time went by. We are not children anymore, and the question of how to make yourself happy pops up, as we still tend to wait for someone to make us feel special one day. At the universities, we have courses we do not like. We go to work we hate in order to earn some money because everyone has to do something for a living.
We communicate with most of the people just because we somehow have to. And we are expecting holidays to bring us joy and happiness, but life does not work like this. In most cases, we drift with the stream forgetting that the reason for our unhappiness lies in ourselves. We shouldn’t imitate happiness, we should live.
My Recipe for Happiness
Once, when I was a kid, my mom told me I have to study hard for her not to be ashamed. There was nothing strange in these words. I am certain many kids have heard pretty much the same from their parents.
Being a child, I didn’t realize the implied meaning of this phrase, but now, I am here for sharing my experience of making myself cheerful.
‘Study hard for me not to be ashamed of you’. Long story short, the phrase is minimal, but the meaning it implies is huge. So it looked like I had to study hard not be intelligent, gain any knowledge or master any skills. I had to study hard to create an image of a person who is smart, but not to be a smart person.
Such situations had taken place in our childhood form the model of our thinking, happy thoughts and merry life perception. Later on, we have to choose any job, because most of the people do this way. It doesn’t matter whether we enjoy our work or not, but it is no good to differentiate from the bulk of people.
We rarely ask ourselves whether we really enjoy the way things are. Our life turns into the waiting room where we expect someone to make us joyful.
Most people are familiar with the feeling when finally they achieve something very desired, they do not feel satisfaction anymore.
A friend of mine won the National Squash Championship when he was 16. He was dead sure that as soon as he won that champion title, it would fulfill the emptiness he kept feeling for a long time and would be the happiest guy in the world.
All five years long he was dreaming about that victory. It was the most important and essential goal for him at that very moment. After his dream came true, he made an interesting confession.
“Being a teenager, I won the National Squash Championship, but I didn’t feel happiness as much as I had wished it before. Now I find the answer to this tricky question is obvious and clear, but for that very moment, I didn’t realize that this victory couldn’t make me glad. The way I gained this victory was a thing that made me thrilled”, he said.
Hence, the recipe for happiness is easy: do not put your happiness on hold making yourself wait for good times to come. Enjoy your life today and keep in mind that you are the only person who will make you happy!
So, what does happiness mean to you? Please share your recipe for happiness and other thoughts on the subject in the comments below.
