Hey, I am feeling low today and let me flip the switch and choose happiness. Voila, I am happy now. Doesn’t happen in real life, right? This is the prime basis of stating why happiness is not a choice.
The human mind houses so many different types of emotions, and for a well-balanced mind, it is important to face every kind. We all strive super hard to generate a significantly higher amount of positive emotions, but at times we are exhausted in the process. An important thing to realize is that we need to taste every emotional flavor and we can’t be happy all the time.
Why Happiness Is Not a Choice?
1. Mental Disorders
For a person suffering from mental illnesses/ disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, is happiness a choice? Genetics and life experiences or situations play a major role in these diseases. The imbalance of chemicals in the brain is something that cannot be controlled by the patient themselves, and they would require medication to do so.
Even after consuming medication, it is not like their mental makeup (mental and emotional state) is perfectly alright. These treatments aren’t 100% effective.
They would still experience range of emotions like sadness, stress, and anxiety. In such situations, stating that happiness is a conscious choice would hurt the feelings of the people who are battling these heinous diseases with all the valor they have.
It would also have a negative implication on the peers of the patients, who long for their dear ones, to come out of this sickness and be happy always. Why happiness is not a choice? If happiness was indeed a choice, they would just close their eyes, wish for this, and an angel would make their loved ones free from the woes of the mental sickness, but unfortunately, that is not how the cookie crumbles.
2. Attitude and Outlook
Why happiness is not a choice? While happiness may not be a choice, considering the arguments given above, attitude is an individual’s choice. Often people might mess up the meaning between the two and use them as synonyms, but that is far from reality.
You cannot always pray for life to be gentle and sensitive towards you. Every living soul has to experience the thorns while embracing the delicate petals in the rose of life. It is your choice to decide what you want to focus on and keep your attention on.
A lot of us love creating impossible scenarios in our head as a consequence of over-thinking and drown in the catastrophes of the situations that haven’t even taken place. Instead, we could try our level best to stop our minds from entering this sphere.
One of the best techniques to use during this time is just yell STOP! This would send a signal to your brain, since it is quite a surprising reaction and not common. Your brain will perceive the signal and suspend the action.
Gratitude is very important if you want to seek eternal happiness. Maintaining a gratitude journal and noting down five things you are grateful for before drifting into your slumber will make you feel loved. This will, in turn, boost your happiness levels because you will learn to appreciate the little things around you.
3. Building Social Relationships
A relationship is a two-way thing that involves both sides to be equally involved. While making new social connections, we should always try our level best and ensure we are talking with respect and kindness because those are the key tools to build a happy bond.
But, just because you are very helpful, it doesn’t mean that the relationship is going to be flawless at all times. So, why happiness is not a choice? You are not choosing happiness, but your act of kindness is paving the way for happiness.
4. Emotional Well-being
It wasn’t in your hands to face a life incident that brought you all the grief; neither was it your choice to be clinically diagnosed with bipolar at a tender age. But, alongside your medication and therapy, you have a simple choice. It is hard and, at times, not feasible, but this is a little key to unlock the door of happiness.
We don’t encourage you to eat tubs of ice-cream or squander tons of money, shopping to make you feel good. But, we want you to take care of yourself and make decisions that will help you gain emotional stability amidst the chaos and whirlwind of your life.
Just introspect yourself and try to comprehend what your body and soul truly desires to help you love yourself a little more. You have to prioritize your sleep, workout, and diet regime to have a healthy lifestyle and be more positive. Because then, you won’t ask from yourself ‘”Why happiness is not a choice? ”
Also, read our article: The Truth About Happiness.
5. The Uncertainties
It is beyond the power bestowed on humans to control life’s events. We don’t have the right over our death as well. The world is constantly changing, sometimes for good, and sometimes for the worst.
Living in harmony with nature, making peace between nations, and ensuring that every human is loved and nurtured are just the choices we can make to avoid heinous activities.
But things like an accident, death of a loved one, or a scandal isn’t in our hands. It is life’s way of examining us, which compulsively means it isn’t a choice. You have to be prepared at all times to face the various challenges life throws at you, be it grief or sorrow.
So, be prepared and stop asking yourself why happiness is not a choice.
Our Role
We need to understand that merely telling people to stay happy isn’t going to uplift their mood. As a friend or relative, we need to hear them speak about things which bother them, try to guide them towards the right path, advice them on what should be done, and not impose our ideas on them.
We all fight mini battles every day, and we cannot choose happiness or make the planet sorrow-free, but we can attempt to make people happy and loved.
We will not appreciate the value of truth unless the vicious circles of lies sink us. We will never have compassion unless we have received hate, and we will never value what we have unless it is taken away from us. So, the answer to why happiness is not a choice, is that, instead, it is a blessing in disguise.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian
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