We all aim to live a happy and fulfilled life today. Many of us can easily afford to buy most of the material things in the world, yet we are not truly happy. Most of us are desperately looking for authentic happiness as we have come to realize that happiness is an essential part for living a fulfilled life. In fact, happiness is our birthright but very few people can sincerely claim to have found true happiness in today's world.
The Dalai Lama once said "From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affects this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. I don't know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves."
We spend a lifetime searching for happiness. Most of us think that happiness is difficult to find and that it is achieved through physical things and circumstances and that we must look for it in the physical world. We very often say things like "If only I could buy that car, then I would be truly happy." Or "If only I could find the right partner, that would be all I need to be happy." Or "If only I could earn this job and have a successful career, then life would be truly fulfilling." Or "If only I could buy my dream house, then life would be just perfect." All these different statements show that most of the time, we tend to look for true happiness in external things and conditions and as such our happiness tend to be only temporary and short lived. Once our desire is fulfilled in external things, we become unhappy again and tend to look for more and more new external things to find happiness.
Most of us are finding it very difficult to find true happiness because we are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The truth is that happiness is out birthright and it is a lot closer and easier to achieve than we think. The search for happiness starts and ends within ourselves. According to Democritus, happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. We just have to go within and find it. Once we know this truth and start looking for true happiness inside of us instead of outside, our life will no longer be the same and we will find more joy, fulfilment, peace and abundance in our lives. James Oppenheim was right when he said "The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."
Happiness is a choice and we have all been provided the free will to choose or not choose happiness. We can all be as happy as we choose to be. We must all make the choice to be happy every single day of our life. Always listen to the wise words of Groucho Marx who once said "Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
The time to be happy is now. Sharon Salzberg rightly said, It doesn't matter how long we may have been stuck in a sense of our limitations. If we go into a darkened room and turn on the light, it doesn't matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week, or ten thousand years - we turn on the light and it is illuminated. Once we control our capacity for love and happiness, the light has been turned on.
Let us all savor the beauty of life and live to the fullest. Let us all choose to make each day the happiest day of our life! We all deserve to be happy now and forever!
