Happiness

We all chase different dreams in our life but without exception the one we all have in common is happiness. I think in an overwhelming, complicated world happiness is a very comforting and safe thing to hope for. But what does it really mean? My therapist once told me that happiness is overrated and fleeting. I was taken aback and told him point blank that he was warped.

I think the notion of disregarding happiness was unfathomable to me because of how obsessed I was to no end about it. In fact I spent years of my life wondering if different individuals and groups were "happy." Its amazing how much time I've wasted staring at people I knew intimately, complete strangers and everyone in between wondering if they truly were happy. And then I graduated to asking people and they usually look a little surprised, study me for a few seconds and quickly answer yes.

But I think a lot of what we call happiness revolves around the idea of "success" which has a lot to do with culture, in American culture in it means a career of high stature and material wealth, this is of course driven my capitalism, a deeply individualistic culture and the need to use a position to feed our own sense of self worth.

Truth be told, manifestations of material wealth offer a high that feels like happiness but very rarely legitimate, lasting senses of joy or contentment. Why do you think billionaires and other obscenely wealthy people like Mitt Romney violate ethics to grow that type of wealth, a billionaire like Jeff Bezos could not feasibly spend his assets in his lifetime but the need to keep acquiring wealth at the expense of the working class is a way of chasing a warped sense of happiness.

In my humble opinion, happiness comes not from chasing status but chasing yourself. Finding yourself or in other words achieving self actualization. Finding your passion, purpose and meaning in this life but most importantly becoming at peace with yourself and finding a way to adeptly cope with challenges and trauma you may face.

Truthfully, I myself am a long ways away from peace, finding myself or really meaningful happiness but I think articulating what I do know from years of therapy, pain and thoughtful reflection are extremely cathartic for me and sharing bits and pieces from my strange life in an attempt to make sense of it all is the best thing I can do for myself.