It was ‘World Happiness Day’

Mallika Wiriyathitipirin/Eyeem/Getty Images

So, yesterday was the International Happiness Day and I won’t even bore you with the statistics and report. But, if you are wondering why there is a day of happiness worthy of celebration – even though I doubt a lot of people in this part of the world realized it. 

Well, the day 20^th of March, recognizes happiness as the most important need in any human’s life and links it to the overall well-being of humans. 

 

Okay, now, if you paused and asked yourself this question, ‘are you happy?’ – would you be able to give a genuine straight answer. That is, a yes or no type of answer? 

Maybe you should actually ask yourself that question. 

 

About two years ago, I met this good friend of mine who was working on a personal project around ‘happiness’. I felt it was interesting and he suddenly asked me, ‘what does happiness mean to you?’. To be honest, my brain sort of froze for a bit – partly because I had this funny tendency to always want to analyze and crack complex things. This means that, sometimes, even simple questions, appear complex – for the love of ‘complexity'. 

Anyways, I stuttered for a bit then relaxed and gave my answers, which I had felt seemed shallow. But, afterward, I thought about that question again, and I learned that; 

 

1.     Happiness is not a destination most of the time, but a journey. Because, if it is a destination, you will have a tendency to feel unhappy after each time you get to a certain stop/destination and want more – the question, ‘what’s next?’ never ends.  

2.     Happiness is in unplanned things. Like, just dancing even without music, and no, you are not mad. Or, sitting outside and connecting the stars at night. Oh, I do that often – I would make out shapes of animals or whatever with the stars. 

3.     Happiness could mean – just living and stop worrying about ‘what will make you happy’. The truth is, if you are an unhappy person, no matter how close or surrounded you are by happy people, you will always feel off and you won’t even be able to explain, why. So, refuse the urge to make things, titles, or people your ‘place or definition of happy’.

4.     Happiness is avoiding the urge to control things – all the time. Oh, I am the queen of ‘control’. Perhaps, my job as a planner doesn’t make it entirely easy. But, the truth is, you can control only what you can and you should avoid the urge to control, what you obviously cannot control. 

5.     Happiness is in being present. I am so grateful for the year 2020 for many reasons. One is, I learned to be and stay in the moment. I was telling a friend recently how I missed the 18 little birds that used to sit on a certain pole wire at 6:45am daily during the pandemic. I almost gave them names – LOL! I meditated more during those times and oh boy, my mind and heart opened up. I released in surrender to the universe, things I obviously couldn’t control and enjoyed every bit of the ‘now’. 

 

So, what does happiness mean to me? Happiness for me is enjoying and appreciating the little and big things that life brings my way – from the fresh aroma of my morning cup of coffee to the view of the dawn of a new day, the chirping of the birds, the daily text messages from my family, the quick chats and calls from my loved ones, the smiles and nods of strangers jogging down the street, the salty taste of my own sweat, the awesomeness of inhaling fresh clean air before masking up, to the excitement (or not) of the day’s task and the thoughts of my future. 

All and more of these things, moments, bring me happiness and assurance!

What does happiness mean to you, too? 

Love always, 

TA