I am sitting on my couch and lazily scrolling the Facebook news feed. There are a lot of posts related to happiness.
‘Happiness is a state of mind.’
‘Small things make us happy.’
‘He makes me happy.’
‘She makes me happy.’
and a few more.
I see a few profile pictures- people smiling, or maybe just forcing it for a good picture? I keep my cell phone down and let my thoughts wander off.
What is happiness?
Is it the same as being contended?
To be able to smile and laugh on occasions?
To be able to fall in love?
To be able to dance at the announcement of good news?
Some say you can be happy while eating a chocolate cupcake.
Then, there are theories about traveling the world and experiencing freedom.
An airplane ticket and a plate full of chocolate account for a feeling?
Happiness is something everyone wants to attain desperately, or so it is assumed.
Some of us look at those billionaires who have perfect spouses and kids and envy them, and we automatically assume that they’re happy. But we don’t know.
We don’t know what happens behind those walls, what words are said, and how many tears are shed.
We eat a chocolate cupcake, but we can picture the last argument we had with our dearest friend or that disagreement with our parents in the back of our minds. No one person can make you happy. No single incident can make us happy. We may feel content for a few moments, and the rest is just a projection of what we want to feel.
And so, we ran. We wish we would fall, and we wish we’d almost cross that line between life and death so that we can realize the importance of being alive and being happy. We try too hard to try and feel happy.
It’s a race. Trying to be on the top of our game, trying not to feel jealous, wishing for disasters, and hoping for miracles… and amidst all that, we get stuck.
We get stuck on thin lines that are the regular definition of happiness.
A career, a family, a love of our life.
What about standing up for what we believe in?
What about bending the wrong rules?
What about making everything a little better and a little prettier because of us?
Fighting is happiness, not winning.
To be able to stand up, to have the guts.
To do what you want to, because you know you’re right.
To not be intimidated.
To be able to change hearts and souls through a speech.
That is happiness.
- By Art Stocker/ Shutterstock
To dance in the middle of the road without caring about what other people think. That’s true happiness.
Being contended because you lived up to the expectations of society and your parents are not even close to the adrenaline rush you will feel when you realize that you are capable of making changes in this grief-stricken wreck of society.
So, start by standing up for yourself. That’ll make your heart beat faster, and no one will be responsible for it- but you.
You’ll be the reason for your smile, the one you can’t stop.
Because now there’s a reason for your blood to flow.
You can be a change. You’re capable of standing up.
You’re more than what your social media accounts speak for you.
And you’re more than the music you listen to.
You’re what you think, and you’re what you fight for.
You’re the disaster, and you’re the miracle.
Don’t let it go.
