There comes a time in everyone's life that they start wondering why can't I just be happy? Why is life so unfair? Life is always messy, from the minute we are born we are constantly battling some person or idea. Telling a two year-old N-O can result in a terrible tantrum that leaves scars on any babysitter or parent for life, when Johnny discovers that Colin took his toy at recess, next thing you know fists are flying and whistles are blowing, and finally, Tina thought using the silent treatment was a great idea when she discovered her friends talking behind her back. As you can see, life is never easy and even though the problems above can seem pretty pathetic and hilarious, they all have one thing in common: a pursuit for happiness.

As humans we have an obsession with happiness. In a 2012 Huffington Post article by Mike Indursky, the number of times “happiness” was googled doubled within the year. Using google trends, recently the interest in the term itself started dropping in 2015 but now is on the rise again in 2016. According to the world and google (because google must be so important) I must always be happy, in fact if I’m not happy, google hands me 194,000,000 results to help out. However, if anybody has been living life lately, being happy is a lot simpler than being organized all the time and meditating for 20 minutes a day.

With all the chaos surrounding us, we believe that happiness is a choice, we even go as far as believing it is something we can control, but can we? As a college student I could give 1000 personal accounts of when bitterness and resentment got in my way of being happy. Even simple emotions like anger and sadness can block me from experiencing bliss and peace. However, it is OK to have emotions other than happiness, and being the go-lucky person I am that was hard to digest.

The world can tell you that you’re broken if your not happy, but when your parents tell you no, someone steals your toy, or someone says something hurtful about you (aka the scenario's above), you have every right to be upset. The key to being happy is learning how to process your emotions and deal with them in a way that puts you back in control of you. It is by experience and learning we learn how to gain control of our feelings and find a solution.

Humans can’t really control their happiness because happiness isn’t something you can go out and buy or immediately feel over a situation. What we can do is learn how to process our real emotions, because when we discover how to deal with our anger, bitterness, or sadness that is when we start to feel true happiness. I believe the world needs to stop relying so heavily on technology and go experience their feelings first hand and learn through this experience to be happy. So that’s my advice, to you reader, after you have finished reading this article, the next time you feel upset or angry, BE upset and angry, notice how it feels, think about the why and how, then go deal with it. From my experience, it feels way better than being happy all the time.

Blessings,