HAPPINESS ~ What is it?
WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
What is happiness? Is happiness contentment? What does contentment mean? Is contentment different depending on our age? Are the things that make us truly happy and contented kept deep in our heart and soul and only come out occasionally, if at all, again depending on our age? When we are little, we are learning constantly about the world we are living in, our relationships and really how to survive and how to get what we need to survive. Are we content then? Somewhere from our mid to late teens, right through to probably our mid, perhaps late fifties, we are constantly striving to have everything! By everything I mean, a University degree, the perfect “job(s)” and moving up the ladder of success, a partner for life, the “forever” home with all the bells and whistles, children, plenty of money which is flaunted by the type of car we drive and our continual boast of what holidays we’re having! How do we feel in this society if we can’t achieve any or all of these things? During this time in our life we can also experience great depression and sadness! Does the pressure of our current world allow us to stop and breath and just be? Is all the striving and reaching for more and more the thing which makes us happy? Do all the material things we constantly strive for bring great happiness and contentment? We say to our friends and family, remember to stop and smell the roses! But do we? When we open the blinds first thing in the morning, do we actually take note of what we are looking at? The tree with the morning sun glittery on the leaves, those fluffy white clouds making their way across that piercingly blue sky! Do we really take it in! Or are we too worried about what the day holds and how we are going to manage with everything we have to do? When we are approaching retirement and the latter stage of our life, we start focusing on our passions. This will be different obviously for everyone, but we realise that we only have from now until we take our last breath on this magnificent earth we walk on. We really do live in the moment because we have time. We really do look at nature and exclaim to ourselves how precious, amazing and beautiful it is. We down size our life because we can. We live more simply because we can and we have nothing to prove. Our lives are full but in an entirely different way to when we were younger running children around to sporting events and birthday parties. In the main we are happy and contented because we can Just BE! If we are lucky enough!
My disclaimer to what I have just said is that there are always exceptions to the rule. These people know from an early age, or learn very quickly that they don’t want to be caught up in society’s expectations. These are the people who go off to third world countries and build housing for the local peoples, they move to an island in the ocean somewhere and study the marine biology. Again, the list is endless and my article is generalised.
Until next time,
Janet ……..