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"Happiness was but an occasional episode in the general drama of pain."
What is happiness?
Is it a state of emotional well-being or just a facial expression? All living beings including plants and animals on the earth are blessed to remain happy but only man has been given the opportunity to take a decision of being happy or not.
....long years back when I had studied the topic in school, the deeper meaning was beyond my comprehension, superficially surely though.
Hearing people sharing their experiences I realised that life is actually not the bed of roses that we thought while growing up. There is pain, darkness, and gloominess despite all brightness around. Negativity, agony, and sadness are, I think, the natural ways of life, they will keep coming off and on.
.... negativity is a dangerous place to delve into and staying positive may not always be possible. Happiness is a conscious choice that we have to make.It's a subjective phenomenon, but all said and done, the real aim of life is to remain happy. We aspire for it but don't work toward it. We wait for the right moments to become happy; we wait for people to come into our lives and make us happy. Is happiness supposed to knock on our doors on its own just as sadness takes pride in testing the heart and soul of a person?
Life is what we make of it. Such a true adage!!!
Anything that's occasionally being experienced is valued deeply. So, happiness that's occasionally experienced is truly cherished. Did Thomas Hardy want to tell us that we stay occasionally happy? No, I think the idea of happiness is changing. We have one beautiful life and a few moments of joy can be made a daily episode relishing its taste twenty-four hours and feeling its beauty every second. Why make it an occasional episode?But phew! Yet,it happens like that despite knowing that time and tide wait for none, we end up wasting our precious time waiting for the right time to feel glad.
'Seize the day my friend'. Live in the moment for you never know which is the last. Let me not sound a pessimist here but do we not agree and realise the truth of life and death? Everytime, my dear friends, when you look at the watch, you realise that you are still alive and be thankful to the almighty for this beautiful life. Happiness comes from within and we ought to work towards it.
Simple things in life can add beauty to our daily life. It could be as simple as enjoying a nice warm cup of adrak chai to our biggest accomplishments.
Stop looking for external validations for happiness. If you get it, wonderful, if not, don't get disheartened and let it affect you to waste precious moments brooding over what was not in your control.
Easier said than done, right?
Indeed! Let's make a conscious choice and effort to smile and look for the light within as was wonderfully taught by Urmila to Mandvi when left alone by Bharat and smile often as the curve that it makes can straighten out a lot of creases.
Smile often, as it surely improves your face value and gives out positive vibes to the ones who are around you.
I think most of us feel happy with small little things rather than looking for big things to make us happy not ignoring the fact that it is subjective. Negativity is a natural process and part of life; happiness may not be. But here the contradiction is. Happiness being the sole aim of life should be the natural process, what is needed is the conditioning of the mind. That's how it is said that we need to tell our sub-conscious mind all the positive thoughts so that happiness and positivity become a natural way of life.
It's unfortunate that we keep snivelling all the time and not value what we have. The idea is not to sit back and just feel happy about what you have and then not grow. The idea on the contrary is to feel happy and contented with what you have and aspire for the best but if it doesn't happen, it shouldn't leave us depressed.
Being positive is the only option we have. Keep telling your subconscious that all is good and that all will be good eventually. Life surely is a roller coaster ride but staying positive may ease out a lot of creases. Life is beautiful and you get only one. Make it a memorable journey by staying positive and happy.
Dr Anuja Thakar is a mentor, an avid reader, a corporate trainer, an editor, a teacher and a travel enthusiast with a life-long commitment to the betterment of mankind.