Life isn’t the sweetest candy. Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find people who have continued to live fascinating and wonderful lives. Then, thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere. How did their life become so adorably sweet? How come they still can manage to laugh and play around despite a busy stressful life? Then I pause and observed for a while. So, how does one become genuinely happy?
My theology professor once said that loving means accepting. To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lie a great ounce of courage to be able to discover ways on how to improve your repertoire to recover from our mistakes.
Genuine happiness also pertains to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have truly, you know the answer to the question how to be genuinely happy.
When we discover a small start somewhere from within, that small start will eventually lead to something else, and to something else. But if you keep questioning life, thinking it has never done you any good, you will never be able to find genuine happiness. I believe that life is about finding out the difference between right and wrong, trying and failing, wining and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. Failure in a person’s life has become as abundant and necessary as air. However, this should not hinder us from becoming happy. How is it possible to be genuinely happy in spite all these failures? I tell you, every time you exert effort to improve the quality of life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your sick dog, or failing an exam and trying again, life gives you equivalent rewards for that.
Imagine life as a big score board, like those which are used in the NFL. Every time you take a step forward, you score points. Wouldn’t it be nice to look at that board at the end of each game and think to yourself, “Wow! I got a point today. I’m glad I gave it a shot,” instead of looking at it all blank and murmuring, “Geez, I didn’t even hit a score today. I wish I had the guts to try out. We could have won, but we walked away.”
Genuine happiness is neither about driving the hottest Formula 1 car, nor is it about getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest 13th month pay, or beating the sales quota. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life doesn’t always go to the fastest, the strongest, the bravest or even the best person. So, how do you become genuinely happy? Every person has his or her own definition of happiness. Happiness for a writer may mean launching as many best selling books as possible. Happiness for a basketball rookie may mean getting the rookie of the year award. Happiness for a beggar may mean a lot of money. Happiness for a businessman may mean success. So, really now, how do we become genuinely happy? Simple. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. It’s about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistakes and telling yourself “Oh, I’ll do better next time”, you carry with you a flame of strong will power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try! This will make you a genuinely happy person.
When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults you will be genuinely happy. For as long as you know how to accept others, you will also be accepted. For as long as you love and know how to love, you will receive love ten folds back.
Again, throw me that same question “How do you become genuinely happy?” I’ll refer you to a friend of mine who strongly said, “Most of us know that laughter is the best medicine to life’s aches and pain. But most of us don’t know that the best kind of laughter is laughter over self, because then you don’t just become happy. You become free.”
10-10-2011 Articles on smoking this month
22-07-2011 Team on vacation! No postings!
20-06-2011 How To Live A Healthy Life goes Social Media!
Smoking and Cancers Scientific research is constantly providing new evidence about the harmful effects of smoking...read more...
