Aren’t we all seeking happiness in life? Can we describe what it is that we are seeking, or is it indescribable? Or do we have the happiness with us, we carry it, but we forgot how to connect to it?
Just take a few moments to feel, if you experience happiness right now, this instant moment, the NOW. If not, can you recall feeling it in the last few moments? Just even a tiny bit of it. Maybe that smile your wife gave you in the morning while waking up, or even better your kid. At the breakfast table, playing with it’s toys? Or that moment that you wake up, happy to be at the place you are? The minute you look outside and the sun is shining, the birds are chirping?
What is happiness?
“Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources. Various research groups, including positive psychology, are employing the scientific method to research questions about what “happiness” is, and how it might be attained. — Wikipedia”
So happiness starts with a state of well-being, something that is always present (either positive or negative). We are always in a state of well-being. It can be mental, emotional, and even a combination of the two. So every moment I take a snapshot of my well-being, I can define what state I am in. At this moment I might be busy with work, which creates a state of mental, emotional or a combination of those, of my well-being. Without labeling it yet with positive or negative emotions. I might be busy with gardening, painting, driving, arguing, reading or whatever verb I can think of imaging what you’re doing. But you are always in a state of well-being.
Now what makes that state of well-being that it gives you happiness?
That state of well-being you are in, can give you positive or pleasant emotions. And those can vary from contentment to intense joy.
Now just think back of that moment I asked you to look back at, and the state of well-being you defined. That state came with an emotion. Find that one moment where you felt the contentment or the intense joy and you have reached happiness!
So by checking your state of well-being in any moment close to NOW, where you felt positive or pleasant emotions that ranged from contentment to intense joy, that is the moment where you can say: “I am happy” and start the day like that.