HAPPINESS: DO YOU KNOW IT’S ADDRESS?

Human life is full of struggles. From birth to death, we are striving hard to achieve something. Imagine a seven-year-old boy, who has an exam after two days and he is feeling so tense and burdened. Now visualize a university student who must submit his final year project after a week, he is working day and night to complete all his work. After getting education, we want to achieve a good job and again put in all our effort to get a job. Our journey of struggle does not end after achieving our dream job, rather we then start striving to get promotions and finally, when we are settled in our j ob, our next goal is to provide a luxurious life to our children, enlighten their minds with quality education and assist them to be settled in their lives.
All humans, no matter which socio-economic background they belong to, are trying in their own unique way for making their lives free of pain and full of pleasure. We are made to believe that financial gains and social status is the source of our pleasure or happiness. We rely on these external things to make our life blissful but as they are not in our control, thus instead of freeing us and making us happy, this belief traps us in an endless loop to keep us chasing after a false promise while the “happiness ” we’re laboriously slaving for slips farther away from our grasp.
Today I will give you the right address of happiness. As we know that, in this universe, the location of everything is defined by space and time. Same is the case with happiness, it is also defined by space and time. As far a s spatial location is concerned, our happiness resides within us all. The time where happiness exists, is present.
To extract happiness from within, we have to introduce ourselves with the concept of self -love. Self-love means being satisfied with ourselves, accepting our flaws and imperfections, being kind and gentle with ourselves and forgiving ourselves for all the mistakes that we’ve ever made. But the question here is, why is self-care important? Imagine yourself in a situation where there seems to be no ray of hope and there is no one to listen to you or to keep you calm. Then there is only one person with you, that is your own self. If you have a positive self-image about yourself and know your self-worth, then you will have the belief that “I can overcome this situation” and you will focus on the solution. This constructive approach will bring positivity that will help you fight with the grim situation without conscious effort. On the contrary, if you have a negative self-belief, then you will underestimate yourself, blame yourself for being stuck in this problem, and your mind will be so involved in such thoughts that you will not be able to think of any solution and will depend on others to help you. Such thoughts will make you miserable. They will lead you to pain and suffering that is opposite of happiness. So, we should always be satisfied with ourselves, love and take care of ourselves and it can automatically lead us to happiness.
The other important factor that can be a source of happiness is living in the present moment. Painful memories of the past and fear of the future cause frustration which leads us toward dissatisfaction. There is a need to understand this fact that neither our worry and stress can change the past nor future-anxiety can prevent future problems rather it is just destroying our present and affecting our peace of mind. We have no control either on past or future but we have power only to control the present as it is still in our hands and we can make it memorable and wonderful. So, we should live in the present, enjoying each and every blessing that we have with gratitude and be optimistic about the future.
Thus, life is short and unpredictable and we do not know how and when it will end. We should try to make each and every moment memorable for ourselves and those around us and obviously it is not possible without being contented with ourselves and without living in the present moment. When we will be happy and joyful, this happiness and joy will emanate from us and will fill everything and everyone around us. On the contrary, if we spend our life struggling and striving and believing that our happiness depends on external things and it lies somewhere in future or in memories of the past, then we won’t get anything other than dissatisfaction and disappointment. These negative emotions will not only engulf our lives but they will cast their shadows on lives of those who are connected with us.