Happiness

Happiness: Ask yourself, "If I lose everything I own right now, my job, my place of residence, my material possessions, my family, friends and loved ones...will I still be happy?" If you had to stop and ponder this question or you even answered no, then the truest happiness is not within your life. I too was guilty of these thoughts and actions at one time. I had to encounter a situation that I could not control in order to learn what the truest happiness is in life.

Naturally as you go through life, you 'think' that happiness consists of external factors such as money, material things, the people in your life, the type of car you drive or clothes you wear. Yet, happiness is not stemmed from any of these things but merely added to by these things. These external factors only add to the quality of your life based on self awareness and who you already know you are.

Therefore, if you truly look within yourself in your life at this very moment in time, can you truly say that you are happy with everything about yourself and your life? If you answered no or had to second guess the question then again, you are still not at your truest state of happiness.

The truest state of happiness is based on self awareness, self esteem, and self love. These three very important things determine the depth and quality of happiness you obtain for yourself in your life. As you grow older, you gain wisdom and knowledge based on your life experiences. Yet, 'how' much wisdom you gain is based merely on how you choose to change your perception based on what 'appears' to be the negative instances of your lives.

Learning to change your perspective on those negative instances helps you see the positive side of a negative situation. For example, some people sit and scream, "Why the fuck is this shit happening to me, what the hell did I do to deserve this?" Instead, the situation can be looked at as life teaching us something valuable that our family, friends or loved ones cannot. Everything in life is based on trial and error, and cause and effect. Right?

Life can be looked at as one giant magnet. If a battery needs a positive and negative flow to work, and the universe works on positive and negative energy, then humans being made up of the same eclectic energy can determine the outcomes of the negative situations in your lives. If your house catches on fire, you lose your job, and your loving and faithful wife or husband (boy friend or girl friend) walks out on you all at the same time, you are probably going to think that life has some personal vendetta against you.

However, karmic retribution and personal perspectives play a great role in how you will come out of all of this happening at one time. Truly, if someone loves you they won't walk out on you no matter what affects your life. So, a loved one or even family abandoning you in your time of need only proves that the person never belonged in your life or was only there for a specified season.

Changing how you look at your house catching on fire and you losing your job can either be life preparing you for greater advancement or repaying you from some action you committed earlier in your life. How you choose to look at this situation determines how you come out of it, and how long it takes to regain your personal happiness.

I have seen some homeless people that others call bums and they were the happiest looking people I have ever seen in the world. Blessed with an ability to find internal happiness despite the fact that they are homeless, have no place to stay or anything to eat daily, these people have learned to be happy with the little things they do have and most importantly some of them have learned to be happy no matter what life looks like on the outside.

On a more personal level of experiences on learning to be happy no matter what happens in life, I am a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, and losing everything I ever obtained to a situation beyond my control as a resident in a city and state that is not even my native land surely taught me that happiness does not come in the form of material things, my career or cars or even the people who I thought were my family and friends.

When you lose everything and everyone in your life, and you have no choice but to stand and take control of your personal happiness despite what your life may appear to be to others, then and only then through wisdom and personal growth have you obtained the truest sense of happiness from your within you based on self awareness, self esteem and self love.

Are you ready to stand up and take control of your personal happiness?

-Lyfe Lessynz