Tuesday, January 22, 2008
When asked “Are you happy?”, what would your answer be?
I had that question posed to me about two weeks ago, right out of the blue. And my first thought was, “Of course I’m happy! Why would you even think otherwise?”
When I asked him why he had such a question, he said it was because sometimes I didn’t look happy.
I thought that strange, because while I couldn’t say that I was a happy camper 100% of the time (we’re all human) and hence couldn’t possibly always have a smile on my face, I mean, I was happy…. I didn’t have to be smiling always just to show that I’m happy, right?
Over that weekend, that incident came back to mind, and I had the peace and quiet and security of my bedroom to think it over.
And I thought, what is it to be happy? How do you define happiness? And following from that, so, are you happy?
I’m sure people view happiness differently.
For the simple-minded (and perhaps most fortunate of the lot), happiness can be found in just being able to get your favourite ice-cream bread, seeing a lovely flower etc.
For others (probably most S’poreans), happiness is having that car, condo, en-bloc sale, holiday, MacBook Air (I want!), handphone, bag, pair of shoes, jewellery… and the list goes on for the materialistic ones.
Then you have those who’ll tell you that happiness is going home and seeing your family, being able to spend time with friends… and so on.
It’s very easy for me to type and say, oh some people are happy when they have this, other probably will be happy when they have that. But the truth is, it’s not that simple a question to answer.
My initial response when posed with that question was ‘Yes, I am happy’. But the more I thought about it, the more I started wondering, am I really happy? I started thinking, “Well ok, I’m happy when this happens, but when that particular bit occurs, I get upset.” I found, I was happy whenever I got a certain item (happiness based on materialistic desires), happy when with family and friends and dogs, happy when eating, happy to look up at night and see loads of twinkling stars… if I could easily be happy/unhappy based on so many things, was my happiness then a fickle thing?
I realized, no, that’s not true happiness. You can say you FEEL happy, but BEING happy is a separate, more in-depth concept.
I found, in my mini journey of self-discovery, what makes me happy. It’s not having things, being in a certain place/time etc… those are just manifestations of happiness, you could say. Rather, I’m happy when I feel I’m being true to myself.
Of course the whole ‘being true to myself’ bit warrants another blog piece… but essentially as a simplified definition (for myself at least), being true to yourself is about following the principals, morals etc that you have.
Our society is such that one does that to follow certain social norms and conventions, there’s no escaping that. And some of them might offend your principals. But on the whole, if for most of your life you’re living it by doing what you want, then I’ll say you’re being true to yourself, and in turn, you’re happy.
It looks so simplistic I feel I’m insulting the topic… but I no longer have the energy to write a philosophical thesis… so ya, that’s it in a nutshell.
For myself, I’ll admit that there’s some things I wish I could do/improve upon, but on the whole, I am happy… because I’m doing what I want to do in so many aspects of my life. Some of my other dreams haven’t been fulfilled, but I’m not too worried about them. I know it’ll come along quite nicely.
For example, I’ll say, I want to go back to Nepal, spend some months in Europe etc and I believe I’ll get the opportunity to do that in the future… and that’s not being materialistic… but more, fulfilling the part of me that believes that you have to see as much of the world as you can, experience different cultures. You may end up not agreeing with some of them, but at least you can tell yourself, “I’ve had an idea of what’s it’s like, so hence I an ‘qualified’ to say that I dun like it.’ And I’m happy just knowing that at least I’ve set that as a future plan, than to not have any plans at all to fulfill some of my desires, which have been borne out of some of the principals by which I have set for myself with regards to how I should live my life.
So my question to you now is this: are you happy?
It’s a very important question, you know… it might help you get your life on the right track… coz there’s no real point in living if you’re not happy. You’ll just be wasting precious oxygen.
So ask yourself that. After all, Plato did say that the unexamined life is a life not worth living.
If you’re not happy, I hope you’ll find your happiness one day… and live to the fullest… like these people:
In Memory of Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 - 2008)
I read this passage once, and for some strange reason thought of him:
He who bends to himself a joy,
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies,
Lives in eternity’s sunrise.
And then, there's this dear lady.
Have a good evening, folks!
I had that question posed to me about two weeks ago, right out of the blue. And my first thought was, “Of course I’m happy! Why would you even think otherwise?”
When I asked him why he had such a question, he said it was because sometimes I didn’t look happy.
I thought that strange, because while I couldn’t say that I was a happy camper 100% of the time (we’re all human) and hence couldn’t possibly always have a smile on my face, I mean, I was happy…. I didn’t have to be smiling always just to show that I’m happy, right?
Over that weekend, that incident came back to mind, and I had the peace and quiet and security of my bedroom to think it over.
And I thought, what is it to be happy? How do you define happiness? And following from that, so, are you happy?
I’m sure people view happiness differently.
For the simple-minded (and perhaps most fortunate of the lot), happiness can be found in just being able to get your favourite ice-cream bread, seeing a lovely flower etc.
For others (probably most S’poreans), happiness is having that car, condo, en-bloc sale, holiday, MacBook Air (I want!), handphone, bag, pair of shoes, jewellery… and the list goes on for the materialistic ones.
Then you have those who’ll tell you that happiness is going home and seeing your family, being able to spend time with friends… and so on.
It’s very easy for me to type and say, oh some people are happy when they have this, other probably will be happy when they have that. But the truth is, it’s not that simple a question to answer.
My initial response when posed with that question was ‘Yes, I am happy’. But the more I thought about it, the more I started wondering, am I really happy? I started thinking, “Well ok, I’m happy when this happens, but when that particular bit occurs, I get upset.” I found, I was happy whenever I got a certain item (happiness based on materialistic desires), happy when with family and friends and dogs, happy when eating, happy to look up at night and see loads of twinkling stars… if I could easily be happy/unhappy based on so many things, was my happiness then a fickle thing?
I realized, no, that’s not true happiness. You can say you FEEL happy, but BEING happy is a separate, more in-depth concept.
I found, in my mini journey of self-discovery, what makes me happy. It’s not having things, being in a certain place/time etc… those are just manifestations of happiness, you could say. Rather, I’m happy when I feel I’m being true to myself.
Of course the whole ‘being true to myself’ bit warrants another blog piece… but essentially as a simplified definition (for myself at least), being true to yourself is about following the principals, morals etc that you have.
Our society is such that one does that to follow certain social norms and conventions, there’s no escaping that. And some of them might offend your principals. But on the whole, if for most of your life you’re living it by doing what you want, then I’ll say you’re being true to yourself, and in turn, you’re happy.
It looks so simplistic I feel I’m insulting the topic… but I no longer have the energy to write a philosophical thesis… so ya, that’s it in a nutshell.
For myself, I’ll admit that there’s some things I wish I could do/improve upon, but on the whole, I am happy… because I’m doing what I want to do in so many aspects of my life. Some of my other dreams haven’t been fulfilled, but I’m not too worried about them. I know it’ll come along quite nicely.
For example, I’ll say, I want to go back to Nepal, spend some months in Europe etc and I believe I’ll get the opportunity to do that in the future… and that’s not being materialistic… but more, fulfilling the part of me that believes that you have to see as much of the world as you can, experience different cultures. You may end up not agreeing with some of them, but at least you can tell yourself, “I’ve had an idea of what’s it’s like, so hence I an ‘qualified’ to say that I dun like it.’ And I’m happy just knowing that at least I’ve set that as a future plan, than to not have any plans at all to fulfill some of my desires, which have been borne out of some of the principals by which I have set for myself with regards to how I should live my life.
So my question to you now is this: are you happy?
It’s a very important question, you know… it might help you get your life on the right track… coz there’s no real point in living if you’re not happy. You’ll just be wasting precious oxygen.
So ask yourself that. After all, Plato did say that the unexamined life is a life not worth living.
If you’re not happy, I hope you’ll find your happiness one day… and live to the fullest… like these people:
In Memory of Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 - 2008)
I read this passage once, and for some strange reason thought of him:
He who bends to himself a joy,
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies,
Lives in eternity’s sunrise.
And then, there's this dear lady.
Have a good evening, folks!
