I work in a busy psychiatry office in the quaint town of Port Jefferson, NY. I generally run the office, making sure people are on time and doing everything in my power to have things run smoothly, which I have surprisingly mastered in the two years that I have been here. Then there is this one thing, this one thing that no matter how many times I hear it still gets to me, this one thing that we consider a necessity to human life, this one thing that is so important that it is even written in our Constitution. Can you guess what this “one thing” is? Happiness. And the pursuit of said happiness. And when you can’t seem to find this happiness then there must be something wrong with you, right? Isn’t this why we all have our therapists and psychiatrists to pick our brains and tell us what is really wrong with us, because, well, we can’t find this thing that we are told is a God given, government given right. We just can not seem to find our happiness. Well- this got me thinking. What is happiness? What is it, really? Does it come in a box wrapped up in a beautiful, perfectly tied bow? Does it come in the form of another person? Is our own personal happiness based on someone else’s happiness? Is it a spouse, a child, a friend, or even a dog? Can you have your happiness on a plane, or even on a train? What if happiness can be something as simple as watching the sun set or eating a really delicious piece of chocolate cake? Is it okay for us to find happiness in something so small? Is the real problem that our idea of happiness is something so grandiose that it simply can not be something that lasts for just a minute? Are we expecting too much from this thing called Happiness? I would like to hear your ideas of what happiness really is. I want to know if it is okay for us to find happiness in something small, or are we cutting ourselves short by not actively pursuing happiness. Do you think that happiness is something that we need to continuously seek? Or can we allow ourselves to find happiness in the little things that happen through out the day? In the comments below let me know what your idea of happiness is and where you find it.
