Happiness

Always seems to be around the corner. Or floating down the river. Or, maybe, it's just around the riverbend.

Are you happy? Right now, where you're sitting? How would you describe your day? No one is happy 100% of the time right? But are you happy 80%? Fifty? Why? I would say that I'm probably happy 60 percent of the time. Maybe.

There are 2 things that stipulate how happy we are. When and If. Because our happiness is usually based on something we hope will one day happen (I'll be happy when I move to such and such a place, get such and such a job, own such and such a thing). So our happiness is deferred.

What about being happy right now? Today? That's where If comes in. I'll be happy if my students pay attention to the lesson and cooperate with each other. I'll be happy if I watch this movie tonight. I'll be happy if this traffic moves out of my way. I'll be happy if Wal-mart doesn't take too long.

When and If. We are very conditional creatures. We even have conditions for our own happiness.

I've had the thought lately, that the best thing we can try to do with our lives is to try to be happy on our journey, helping as many people as we can and hurting as few as possible. No matter what religion, nationality, whatever, I'm pretty sure everyone could agree on this. If we could all choose our goal in life, wouldn't you choose to be happy and to help others more than you hurt them?

I'm pretty sure Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and all the others would say "Great idea! Go do it! God will help."

So what's stopping you from being happy? Try not to think of it in conditional terms. If you weren't in school you'd be working and you would still have to do things that you don't want to do. If you had a different job there would still be challenges and you would still have bad days. When you get married or finally have a significant other you'll still feel lonely and misunderstood sometimes. There are things that you cannot control. Duh, right?

THERE ARE THINGS YOU CANNOT CONTROL.

There are things you cannot control.

Things like natural disasters, government policies, other drivers, your boss, your better half, your friends, your professor, the economy, taxes, your favorite characters on tv, traffic lights, daylight savings, whether or not your favorite team will win, the weather, and countless other things.

Yet everyday what do we dwell on? What do we talk about? We mostly talk about the things we cannot control. That or what happened on something we just watched.

The only thing you have control over is you. Your outlook. Your thoughts. Your choices. Your time (as least some of it).

So try this: breathe, smile, repeat. At least that's what Thich Nhat Hanh suggests. I've only read the first few pages of his book "Peace is Every Step" but he makes a lot of sense. If you don't know who I'm talking about you can read about him here.

One thing he said that I really like "Of course, thinking is important, but quite a lot of our thinking is useless." Pretty smart guy.

So stop, breathe, smile, repeat.

I guess what I'm trying to say is don't worry, be happy.