Happiness is this ephemeral concept that everyone desires, and yet it manages to elude us. We devote our entire lives to finding happiness, but the truth is, you aren’t going to be happy every day of your life, and that’s okay.
There is no formula for happiness, and it is a riddle that you will spend your whole life trying to solve. Happiness means different things to different people, which is why there is no concrete explanation for it. Society pushes us down certain paths claiming that at the end of the tunnel you will be rewarded for your hard work, but that doesn’t mean that it leads to happiness. People so often chase what they believe will make them happy, rather than what they are truly passionate about. It is so important that you discover what makes you feel fulfilled because then you will be happy with the path you are on. It can be scary to go against the grain and against social norms, but the reward can be beautiful and bountiful.
Happiness is not something you can chase, but you must practice what you’re passionate about instead and happiness will come to you. Happiness is dynamic rather than static, and so it is ever-changing. Something that made you happy two years ago may be completely irrelevant in your life today. It is vital that you have an open mind in all situations and that you are willing to let life happen to you because that is how you will find happiness. I believe that happiness is truly a mindset, and you have to actively choose joy every day, but that can be a difficult task because it is easy to get bogged down by everyday problems.
Something that is hard to understand about happiness is that it is fleeting and sudden. Sometimes, you don’t even realize how happy you were until the moment has passed. It can be so easy to get wrapped up in everyday trials and tribulations that you can actually begin to close yourself off from happiness. You become stressed and start to feel so low that you think life is always going to be this hard, but it won’t. Just as happiness is fleeting, so is pain. When you’re crying on the floor of your room the night feels immense and infinite, but the sun will rise and you will feel like yourself again. It might take days or weeks before that happens but one day you will wake up, and the pain will have ceased, and you’ll forget how dark those moments felt.
You have to know that it’s okay to not be okay. Everyone must go through periods of unhappiness and doubt because that is how you grow. Being unhappy isn’t easy to go through but it challenges you and makes you think about situations differently. Your period of unhappiness will eventually end, and you will emerge a stronger person. Young adults especially experience the highest highs coupled with the lowest lows, and you just have to let those experiences happen to you and learn from them. So the next time you feel like the universe is against you, just remember that everyone feels like this and it is a normal part of your development as a person. You just have to trust the path that you’re on and be able to go with the flow. Happiness will make its way to you.
