Tonight in our small group we talked a bit about happiness and learning from/living in/dealing with your past. A lot of interesting things were said. I think happiness is a weird thing. For some it seems to be as easy as anything and for others it’s as elusive as a North American yeti. Why is that so? Why is it so easy for some to be content with life and others aren’t able to find it?
I don’t really have these kinds of life answers, but I have a few theories. One thought/idea that was mentioned is that happiness just comes with age and maturity. Some older or elderly people just seem to be happy and content. When that was said, I immediately thought of certain bitter old people that have just been crabby for years. Does this mean they aren’t mature? I really feel wise, content and cool old people don’t just magically become that at the age of 65.
Some people also have different outlooks on life. Some people are always pining for the past. Things were always better in the “good old days” or when they were younger. Other people live so much in the moment they don’t make good long-term decisions. Other people live so much for the future that they don’t learn to appreciate or take advantage of the now. So how should we live? This is easier to say than do, but like with everything, I think moderation is the goal to strive for. We need to learn from our past; we need to enjoy the present; we need to plan for our future.
Personally I can look back on a lot of situations where I wasn’t happy and there were two easy solutions. I’m not saying these apply to every situation, but in most instances these could have fixed my problems.
The first would be my attitude. Sometimes I just have a bad attitude. Ryan and I were talking about when we were kids and our mothers would always get on us about our attitudes. It’s only as adults that we both understand this concept. I can’t even begin to count the times, situations, events, etc where I just had a bad attitude and wasn’t having a good time, wasn’t liking my lot in life, wasn’t enjoying a situation, got worked up, etc because I had a bad attitude. In many situations things could have been a lot better if I had just chilled out.
The second would be making a decision or just doing something. Sometimes there was something I could have very easily, or not so easily, done to rectify the situation. These can include talking to somebody to clear up a misunderstanding or doing something out of my “comfort zone” to branch out. There are even certain situations where I needed to stop or not do something. Maybe I was making bad decisions or being stupid. I can look back and see times where I’ve done these kinds of things knowingly and unknowingly. Some of this can be avoided by learning from our mistakes.
So what am I trying to say here? I think anybody can be happy if they want to be. I have it so easy living in the United States. I have a full time job with health benefits. I can pay my bills. I have more than enough food to eat every day. I even have extra money to buy stuff, go places and do things. I have friends and family that love and support me. I have the freedom to do pretty much whatever I want. So why am I unhappy with all my stuff filling my two-bedroom apartment, my freedoms, my social life, and my financial stability?
I don’t really have a fix-all answer for that. Why can’t we just be happy with our allotment in life? I know there’s lots of people out there and they don’t even have one of the good things going for them I mentioned above. Yet they’re still happy. Maybe not all the time, those people are just creepy, but they’re still happy. They’re content with life….something to strive for I guess.
0 Responses to “Happiness”