Happiness

i saw tis and muz post it coz so many ppl complain abt how miserable they are yet do not do anything abt it.

while others r juz so pessimistic whenever they encounter setbacks.

we are resourceful, tat's y we are fire fighting everyday. if we r rendered helpless by difficulties we face, are we expecting someone else to come along and solve the prob?

i disagree strongly wif not taking ownership of one's own happiness. nobody else but urself can decide to b happy!

and yes, being happy is a choice and not juz a result of circumstances or sheer luck


Happiness is not something that others can take from me.

It's something that I would have to throw away on my own.

There will be times when things don't turn out the way I want them to.
My best friend at work may turn out to be a power-hungry corporate animal who backstabs me at every opportunity.
The promotion I worked so hard for may go to someone else.
My partner might decide to leave me, a day before we are due to go for a vacation together.
I may lose most of my savings in a market crash.

These are things that can happen to the most loving, compassionate, careful and reasonable person.

But after the initial pain and shock, the decision whether or not to let myself languish in despair is entirely up to me.

I can allow misfortune to form the bulk of my life, or I can choose to leave what's past in the past, and move on.

I can also choose to be an optimal thinker, that is, enhance and elevate my experience of the world in my mind, so that my experience of every day can be a wonderful one.

This involves cultivating a deeper appreciation of things. Even the simplest and most mundane.

French novelist Marcel Proust wrote that "the real voyage of discovery consists of not seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes."

Yes, we all know a leaf is a leaf is a leaf. We could write a sonnet about a leaf and it would still be just a leaf.

But then our experience of it would be dramatically different. We would see what others cannot. We would savour keenly what others only catch a hint of. We would sense the beauty of life which others have neglected in their constant disregard and contempt.