Happiness is not a Brouhaha

Happiness is not a Brouhaha. It is a state of mind! And only if you intend to stay happy, will you be able to spread happiness around you. More often than ever we tend to map happiness to inanimate objects or benchmarks in life.

From a fatter salary, to a better house, to a bigger car to the next vacation destination – our lives have unfortunately turned into a circus that is continuously in the pursuit of these, with the presumption that achieving one or all of these adds a degree of happiness and joy in our lives. And mind you, this never stops – the benchmarks keep going higher and we tend to only keep wanting more and more and never seem to be happy with the Present state.

Suddenly the smaller things in life stop giving us the joys that it used to, earlier. Jokes don’ seem funny anymore, Old friends not ‘hip’ enough, the greasy food from that restaurant in the corner suddenly seem to be so filthy and the grades your kid bring back from school not enough. We then want to push our kids to excel – striving to impart the same need of a ‘want’, in them. We earn the monies we are scared to spend – I want to save it for later.

We live in this virtual myth that life will give you this utopian moment in a state called ‘Later’ where we will have everything planned, every moment sorted and every penny accounted for.

We will at that point, have the time to spend with our loved ones, the money to enjoy the luxuries, the creative geniuses to write that book and pen down every thought we lived with; the ability to return that call from a friend or the patience to sit with your parents on a cruise in the Mediterranean and thank them for all the good things they’ve done for you and how you are grateful for the way they brought you up and also chipped-in to bring up your’s!

While at it, you dream of also looking into the eyes of your spouse and telling him / her of how much you loved him / her and how life just wouldn’t be the same without the other. Your kids would be patiently looking at you then, for you to turn to them and also tell them how finely they’ve grown-up, just the way you wanted; and listen to all their stories through school and college and of how they dealt with bullies and of their first crushes and of even how they were crushed to not be loved back the way they’d expected – the moment for you to then reach out your arm over their shoulder and give them the parental hug of security that tells them that life’s got better things in store.

It is this moment called ‘Later’ that we postpone life’s simplest of things for, and instead rush after the most banal everyday struggles to prove to the world that we are somebody beyond who we are; to earn sense of accomplishment and gracious nods from people for whom we might just be another employee code.

Live in the moment – cherish the smaller things – live the joys that life gives you today

Your friends may have long gone far of, your parents may be 10 feet under, your spouse could be in another home, your kids may have long grown even before you realise – And then you’d be cursing yourself for having missed the opportunity.

But as life always tells you – You only get one chance at it, and its up to you to stay happy and find joys in the little things that life offers - Happiness is not a Brouhaha. It is a state of mind – Your’s!