Simplifying happiness

 

Happiness is an emotion and a feeling.  Each person has their own definition of what makes them happy.  Happiness brings in a sense of satisfaction or sometimes a sense of abundance within a person.  Me personally, what makes me happy would totally be different to what makes someone else happy.  For me happiness means simplicity and being more focused on relationships rather than on monetary or materialistic value.  So lets see how we can try to hack happiness. If indeed it is something internal.  That means that we can turn this internal machine on, any time regardless of any outside circumstances, trials and tribulations.

Happily poor

 

I remember during my college days in which I barely have enough quarters to pay for laundry.  I remember the time in whine had to beg for a penny just so that I had enough change to pay for drying my clothes. Yet those we’re the times in my life in which I was the most happiest and which I cherish a lot. I remember the fun times that I had being broke.   The times in which you go to a be or club already drunk or sneak in a mini drink in your pocket because you just can’t afford the drink inside.  The reason why those times are the most fun times is due to the fact that you have great relationships with your friends and not thinking about or concerned about any major bills.  The relationships that you had with people during those times are the one of the most fun and memorable big sin your lifetime

 

As we grow older our life becomes worse and more complex and the issue of money becomes more of a problem to the point that we have no more time to invest on relationship and towards people.  On the other and the friends at we have starts to have their own children and a married life which means that they themselves also do not have enough time of the day to spend with anyone.  And when they’re call and for some reason we can’t fit the appointment in our schedule, we have no choice but to flake and they too starts to flake.  Next thing you know you just see your friends just once a year and there’s almost no communication while everyone becomes more and more distant.

Have you ever bought something that was quite expensive such as an apple electronic item for example. You notice that you start to become really obsessed with this item and begins to build an attachment to the object.  Then all of a sudden it fell or got wet and since you did not buy the extra insurance you are not stuck with a useless piece of object.  Since you are now attached to this object it was very painful for you to know that this object is now obsolete and there is totally nothing you can do about it.  When we are emotionally drained we have a tendency to look for something to make us feel better and therefore we buy and buy more in order to fill that void that we created to ourselves.

Be Passionate

 

“A conclusion I’ve come to at the Idler is that it starts with retreating from work but it’s really about making work into something that isn’t drudgery and slavery, and then work and life can become one thing.”

 

― Tom Hodgkinson

Finding my purpose and passion in life is a lifelong challenge for me.  I tried to ask myself a very simple question which is, what  is something that i really love to do. If you have a million dollars in your hand right now and doesn’t need to work for the rest of your life, what is it that you would want to be doing. Surely, lying down all day and getting fat would just be too boring and is just not sustainable. So, a good question would be how do we value things around us in relation to happiness. The western world especially here in the United States, has a sense of value system that we might not have seen in other parts of the world. The sense of the everyday “grind” and “capitalistic” view in life makes us forget to focus on the importance things that is meaningful to us, the “passions” in life.

According to a study that is done by a nonprofit encore.org. which helps Americans pursue a more meaningful career, as many as 10 million or more people have already transitioned into encore careers that combines purpose, passion and a paycheck.  We are now at a point in time in which it is socially acceptable to follow our passions.  Living in line with one’s passion isn’t just about work, “it’s about the freedom of building relationships and defining life within your own terms.”