The keys to complete happiness

The keys to complete happiness

“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.”

― Charlotte Bronte

We all define happiness differently. We all have different reasons to be happy and stay happy. We believe that the achievement of something or an incident we wished would happen would make us infinitely happy and that the rest of our lives we would stay happy. Yet often when we reach that point, it feels less than what we expected. The euphoria and the dizzy heights of happiness in just not there. You are left wondering whether you had waited and worked for nothing.

This is the perpetual problem with happiness. It is perhaps one of the least defined of all emotions. There are no preset pathways to joy. So does that mean that happiness can never be achieved to its fullness?

There are great nations in the world where the very basis of nationhood is the right of everyone to pursue his or her course to happiness. If happiness is so elusive why pursue it at all? Wise men have given us answers. Happiness in never a standalone emotion. Your levels of happiness is based on who you are sharing it with and whom the achievement benefits. Your purchase of the much coveted sports car become truly a joy, when you get the appreciative looks of the people around you. The promotion at work gets better when you watch the joy in your wife’s eyes. That then is the very basis of happiness. Only shared happiness is sustainable.

However the best form of happiness is one that comes of giving sources of happiness to others. Be it your family, friends, members of your society or even complete strangers. When your deeds or what you give bring happiness to someone other than you, it tends to make you happy in a very real sense. And if it gives relief to someone in pain or distress, it makes your happiness a very deeply spiritual experience. The true gratification that you get to see from those you have helped can make you feel the touch of divinity in your heart. That then is real happiness – one that sustains even after years. The first drive in your sports car is just a onetime experience, the gratitude of someone to you is a lifelong one.

You always know what you have given, but you never know what the other person has received, until you see the happiness it gave them. That is when the value of what you gave becomes the true gift you get. One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.

This life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, singing, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. If you choose to live life this way, getting out of bed in the morning gets a true meaning. If you keep putting values to the need to be happy, you will never get it. Happiness will raise the bar for you every time. If your happiness come at the cost of having to get a thing or being at a place or position, then the moment you get it or reach there you will see new places to get to or newer things to possess.

However if  your happiness comes at simple things like seeing the tiny flower bloom in your garden, then, seeing the butterfly flutter around the flower will be the bonus you never asked for and got freely. Happiness has no price tag, it is you who attach one to it. It is for all to grab it when it comes and to be shared with everyone around.

Happiness always comes with sharing and understanding.