Uncovering the Secret to Genuine Happiness
If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s the importance of happiness. In a fast-paced world of endless grinding and working to meet deadlines, it’s easy to get lost in the process, and begin to lose the meaning of what life is actually meant to be.
From the day we are born, we are told we have to go to school, get good grades, work hard, get a job, and hustle until we make our dreams come true. Until we get the life that we imagined.
But what if the dreams we’re working so hard for don’t make us as happy as we imagined they would? What if we get there, and continue to experience the same emotions as before, always looking for the next thing? Just hoping that the next accomplishment will give us fulfillment?
My Journey to Happiness
As a Young Child
When I was a young child, I experienced a lot of depressive emotions. Although I experienced a lot of joy, I also combated many periods of extremely negative emotions. I threw very bad tantrums, crying and screaming from the smallest problems that presented themselves in my life.
At the time, I had no idea why I felt the way I did, why I experienced so much negativity and hatred, so much rage and shame and guilt. So much sadness and depression.
As I got older, my parents began to discover the importance of nutrition. We learned a lot about how food affects the body, mind, and soul, and as I fixed my diet, I began to feel much happier and less distressed every day. My insomnia got significantly better and completely went away, and eventually, so did my lactose intolerance.
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Middle School
When I got to middle school years, I decided to reinvent myself. I wanted to completely change my life, so I tried new things that I never would’ve had the interest or courage to try before. I joined a lot of clubs for the first time in my life, as well as sports. I took up dance and gymnastics, and even took some swimming lessons.
Engaging more in my hobbies, including drawing and writing, I found I had a huge passion for writing. I decided to make it my mission to become an author, as well as an artist, and also a blogger.
Discovering new dreams and passions, I realized there was so much more to life than I’d previously imagined. I read a lot of amazing books, and felt very inspired by the stories I read. After writing my own, I started this blog as well.
I started meditating, and even created my first bullet journal to track my new goals and habits I wanted to implement into my life. By practicing gratitude daily, I focused on what I had instead of what I lacked. Over time, this habit transformed my perspective and reshaped my feelings. The change left me feeling more content and positive.
Happiness is a State of Being
It was at that point in my life, that I discovered I was truly happy for the very first time. I no longer experienced the negative emotions that had weighed me down, or the unhappy thoughts that came with it.
No more guilt, shame, anger, rage, or contempt flooded my mind. I was legitimately happy all the time, even when I didn’t have a particular reason to be. It was my default state of being. My mind was filled with positive thoughts, and I rarely felt negative emotions.
Negative events I experienced brought me from a high state of happiness to a just slightly lower one, never really allowing me to experience true negative emotions, whereas positive ones took me from my already high state of happiness to euphoria.
Lessons Learned
I realized that happiness is an internal state of being, and therefore to change it, one must do so internally. Although nothing in my life had changed all that drastically, the people in it were the same, the home I lived in was the same, my living circumstances were the same, I was still much much happier.
I had created my own happiness, due to the way I changed my perspective over time, and the way I began to take care of myself in ways I hadn’t done before, in turn changing that inner state of being.
We all have a vision for the type of life we want to live one day. The type of life that we believe will make us happy, the true place we are meant to be. However, no matter what life we are living, whether it’s that life or our current one, there will always be challenges, obstacles, and problems that come up.
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Every life will have its pros and cons, its positives and negatives, because life will never be perfect. Therefore, if we only ever look at the negatives, we will never truly be happy.
Happiness is a mindset. To become happy, the change must happen internally. It takes a lot of time, effort, and consistent hard work, but it can make the difference between living your current reality versus your dream life.
Feel free to comment below about your own experiences and journey with finding happiness!