It’s all about being happy isn’t it. Especially at this time of year. Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Everywhere you turn, people are wishing each other a joyful, prosperous and happy New Year, as we welcome each other into 2011 and say goodbye to 2010.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the first to embrace the concept of wishing well and raising an optimistic glass in order to cheer in the New Year. Nevertheless, just lately I have been thinking a lot about “happiness”, in particular, happiness as our ultimate goal.
We all just want to be happy don’t we? The Dalai Lama advocates that every human is in pursuit of happiness and that the purpose of life is to be happy. We have a government who are starting to monitor the happiness of the nation through the introduction of the happiness index… yet alongside that we have a nation who are increasingly turning to their doctors for medication, because guess what, they are not happy!!
I can’t help wondering if this focus on happiness is one of our largest concerns. The expectations placed on every one to be happy. What does happiness mean anyway? And, if we’re not happy, does that mean that we are in some way “broken” or “ill” or “wrong”?
A friend of mine on facebook – A Brilliant Madness placed a status update yesterday, which sums up what I am trying to say really well.
Happy tears’ are like watering the flowers in your soul’s garden! Sad tears are like doing the laundry, gets the dirt out!
If we are hung up on happiness, to the point where we don’t allow ourselves to be sad, where does that lead us? What happens to those tears? Surely, they have a right to be seen and heard. Are tears a way of detoxing emotions and detoxing the soul? What is the long term effect of not recognising them? In fact, how much value is there in happiness, if you remove sadness from the picture?
With that in mind, this year, I’m focusing on peace instead of happiness. Peace within, where both happiness and sadness are allowed to live and where harmony and contentment are the ultimate goals, not happiness.
Here’s wishing you all a peaceful and harmonious New Year.
Nice! Recognizing we all have a story, and grieving or crisis or adversities of all kinds play into those… we love to seek the lessons in all of those challenges by truly being present. Those challenges shape us. The key is to never remain stagnant in the “sad.” So let the learning, shaping, and persevering begin to a joyful and peaceful 2011!
@alyandrea
I can relate to this post.
Happiness is well… Important and connected to all other emotions. it is the epitome of being the opposite of any and all BAD things. The way you feel, the chemical change. But at what point does it become watered down as if were building a tolerance.
Funny, on NYD I wrote a post relative to the “Self promises” we make and break every year, and what the stress of our expectations can do to us.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your comments… I love this “the key is to never remain stagnant in the sad”