Happiness and the Pursuit of It

What does it mean to be happy? I mean genuinely, truly happy.

Many people buy into the misconception that certain things in life will make you “happy”. Money, fame, power, love, freedom. These are aspects of life that society has driven us to pursue. The misconception, however, is that these things can often be a destructive force in our pursuit of happiness. 

There are certain factors that I believe contribute to happiness, and I’m going to share them with you.

  1. Your Attitude: That’s right, you pessimists, I said it. There’s an old saying, “It’s not your altitude, it’s your attitude.” which is extremely true. You could be the most successful person on Earth, but hate your life because you have a negative attitude towards everything. When you have a positive outlook on life, you’ll be happier. You’ll be able to find the joy in common things that are often overlooked, and make the best out of any situation. This positive influence can spread to other people, making your world a happier place.
  2. Your Family: Your family are the people you spend the most time with. Since you were born, your family has been looking out for you, helping you navigate this scary thing known as “life”. Somehow, we manage to try and push our families away. A lot of factors can contribute to it: an active social life, work, or the fact that they might drive you just plain crazy! Seriously, though, life is easier and happier when you aren’t bickering around with the ones you love. Try setting aside one night to spend with your family and keep and open mind. You won’t regret it.
  3. Ambition: Ambition gives you something to live for. It makes you focus on a goal for the future, rather than having no direction, feeling like a hamster that just keeps spinning around and around in a wheel. Ambition makes you strive toward becoming a better person, a happier person. It defines who you are and what you want out of life. Plus, imagine how great you’ll feel when you accomplish that goal! That’s a huge happiness boost!
  4. Spirituality: Call me crazy, but I think having something to believe in makes you a lot happier.

Life’s what you make it, and happiness is also what you make it. No one can control the circumstances that life throws at them, but that’s what defines a truly strong person: one who can put a smile on their face and make the best out of any situation.

So put the past behind you and look forward. You’re gonna love the view.

*Music of the Day*: Fantasy- DyE

I honestly can’t decide why I love this song so much. It puts you in such a state of serenity with its dreamlike vocals. I’m reminiscing of past summer nights, and looking forward for the ones to come.
To fully enjoy this track, put in your earbuds, sit outside, turn up the volume, close your eyes, and breathe. Sometimes enjoying such a simple moment is the most blissful thing on Earth. :)

Re-Focusing

This year has been pretty hectic for me. Moving to a bigger town, jumping into a new school with numerous clubs and activities, meeting new people, making new friends, remodeling an old house. It was all A LOT for me to take in. I noticed about midway through the year, though, that I was losing focus. Call it “3rd Quarter Syndrome” or whatever, but I had lost all sight of what I stood for and aspired to be. I blame myself for most of it, not trying and everything, but I was also hanging out with people who didn’t care. I lost touch and stopped caring about most of the people that I called my friends. I forgot about my grades and schoolwork. I grew apart from my family. I also gained A LOT of weight. My confidence and outgoing personality were on a downward spiral, and I realized it was unhealthy.

It’s hard to get back into anything, and this whole experience has proved very formidable to me. I have vowed to start caring about everyone and having an optimistic attitude in the face of adversity. I have vowed to get on good terms with my enemies, and find things in myself that I need to improve on. AND, I have vowed to get in shape (not just losing fat, but gaining muscle and warding off jiggliness). I KNOW I can do this.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”~Philippians 4:13 

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