What is happiness?

      Is it the segregation grief? Something that alludes to a state of primordial bliss? Or is it something

      more congruent to the state of refined contentment? Something not too eccentric but a feeling

      that is more linear to peace. It is impossible to quantify 'happy'. To some it is the serenity you encapsulate

      when u roll in your bed sheets on a saturday morning when office seems a distant memory.

      To some it is going out on a friday night with friends, ready to test yourself against those potions

      brewed by the experts, dancing at clubs, senseless. Romantics shall note that reading a good book

      or spending time with nature accrue to such an emotion that may be termed as 'happy'.

      Logical proclivity would dictate, based on these classifications that happiness is the opposite of sorrow.

      What we should really ask is not 'how can I be happy?' But 'how can I keep sorrow at bay?'. What

      are the things that keep u most unhappy? Identify them and rationalize. Due to an emotional bias

      we are often worried about what may be and what has become for our emotions prevent us from

      seeing the bigger picture and what is important. Our past makes us wince and our future sends us

      cowering in the shadows . Sometimes we are too busy being afraid of being afraid that we forget it

      is normal to be so. After all it is only from being afraid that true courage can emanate. How sad it is

      to waste the present on 'what if'. Is all your sorrows worth more than pleasing society and what it ,

      sometimes dubiously, states is the way of being? I pose all these questions for I do not want to be

      persuasive , instead rather, beseech you to reach an understanding for yourself. All religions

      (I know of) are aimed at quintessential happiness. They each have a heaven, nirvana or Svarga.

      This is proof that man is always in the constant pursuit of happiness and on realising that such

      a feeling is temporary decided to reach for a permanent solution. The sooner we realise that

      happiness is temporary the sooner we learn that sorrow is even more so . It also proves that you

      are definitely not the first man or woman who wrestled with concepts of being happy and you will

      not be the last.

      Emotions being intangible are the constructs of the human brain and can be controlled. What occurs

      around us is often beyond our influence yet what happens within us is always our decision.

      Reflex only persist for mere seconds beyond which you can be the master of yourself again. When

      ever u feel annoyed or depressed just give it a thought and wonder if it is all worth more than your

      happiness. We shall not take a Buddha like stance on desire for I find it extremely difficult to do

      away completely with desire while we are human so we take the more psychological approach as

      opposed to the philosophical one; which we may deal with in later editions depending on your interest.

      For now, do well to remember that we are not here to please everybody , there is one of you and

      over seven billion of them. It is mathematically impossible, coupled with the differing variants of

      opposing ideas we each have of how life should be lived. Know that it is time you stop caring so

      much about other's happiness and more about yours. One need not be a rebel to pursue one's

      happiness, all we need is courage, a little self love and a pinch of diplomacy to appease family when required.

                                                          Our happiness is ours to define

 

-  By Kevin Azyu