What the whole world deprives of, is happiness. We all are probably fanatically looking for happiness. Some want to explore happiness in materialistic abundance and ascribe happiness to their ability to splurge more on their luxury and exotic aspirations. Someone who commutes to the office every day in a Lamborghini is believed to be far happier and contended rather than the person who usually boards public transport to commute to the office. But in the real world, both of them might end up being equally screwed up with life. Those who are rightly conditioned and favorably positioned to be claimed to be quintessentially happy are usually found to be grossly disappointed with life and living under the shadow of self-doubt.
Could anyone have ever thought about Jim Morrison being so successful and unimaginably popular all across the world can ever go to the extreme of killing himself by injecting alcohol into his vein. Elvis Presley worshiped as a youth icon is yet another example who epitomized the popular perception that success often gets someone so apart from the rest of the world that successful individuals are forced to live life in utter isolation and consequently stand vulnerable to depression, they finally succumb to. Elvis was found dead in a bathtub in his own apartment and believed to have committed suicide by consuming excessive drugs.
The list of unfortunate celebrities who found the option to quit more convenient than to continue with their life is endless and getting elongated with more names pouring into it with every passing day. It includes a name from almost every walk of life. Singers, poets, scientists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, successful business tycoons and even Students graduating from a college of good repute are quite frequent in the list of people who may commit suicides as they appear to have fallen prey to the epidemic called being ‘Unhappy’, which seems to have haunted mankind right from the dawn of civilization.
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The road to happiness passes through the passage of oblivion
It is quite evident that the road to happiness is still not known to mankind. Hence, we keep meandering with an objective to explore ways that could lead us close to the essence of happiness. The faster we run behind the halo of happiness, the further it drifts away from us. In a world which is brewing up with hatred, lust, violence, and competition, everything seems to have jumped out of proportion. All of us have lost our sanity and peace of mind while being agile and instrumental to sustain in the struggle for existence.
The world is gradually becoming a far more complex place to live in than ever before, which slowly and silently takes a toll on the joy of being alive and the excitement of being happy with whatever we have had. In the constant pursuit to stay ahead financially and look the best, while doing so, we use many artificial measures to do so. To an extent, these are known to give a sense of calm and confidence to a few people, but to others, it may mean more money spent and more financial problems; it depends on how your perspective is.
If we, the grown-ups, find it so difficult to grapple with life even at a mature age, imagine how difficult it would be for a child to come to terms with life and face it with an everlasting smile on his/her face.
Children being the most unhappy creatures of the world
Unhappiness has crippled the children too and paralyzed them of their ability to extract best of the fun and merriment out of everything they do. They live life with the best of the amenities with easy access to the most profound opportunities around. They attend the most prestigious school in the town and are being groomed and coached by the best of the minds available. Their parents are always ready to spend relentlessly to buy them the best of conveniences and all the luxuries that someone can ever desire for.
A life which apparently seems to be so perfect and flawless actually burns a hole for the unhappiness to sneak into the life of our children. Every time we buy something special or do something exceptional for our child, we do it with an expectation that they will return it back by making us proud with their achievements. When we put our child in the best school in the town, we expect him to end up with being the best in his class.
We probably get him/her curated with the best mentors so that he/she can excel in the entrance exams in order to stand a fair chance to study in the world’s most coveted institutes. Just think about the misery of a young child and how panic-stricken his life could be if it is constantly measured against the parameter of how much he delivers, compared to the measure of expenses spent on him. If a child gets a new gadget on his birthday, he is probably required to obtain high grades at school to refrain his parents from regretting over the investment made on the purchase.
Perpetuate your own equation of happiness
Happiness is a state of mind which liberates you from all your anxiety and despair and creates a situation for you to be able to be at ease with yourself. As we always keep looking ahead, we will be threatened by the sight of others having been gone much ahead of us, leaving us way behind.
No matter how fast we run and how hard we struggle, the rat race of life will never come to an end. The moment one goal will be achieved, we will start staring at the next goal and thus, we begin to run again. So Instead of looking elsewhere, we need to take a pause and start practicing looking inwards to be able to recognize who we are deep inside. Once you do it, you will probably be able to discover your ‘real’ self. You would be able to know much about yourself and the exercise may end up with you being in harmony with choices that you want to make in life in order to explore happiness.
The same holds true for your child as well. Hence, instead of running them down under the pressure of performance, you need to allow them to grow up at their own pace being able to identify areas of their unique strength pursuance of which could give them immense happiness. So an act of reinventing yourself in the light of your own unique traits that separates you from the rest of the world could steer you towards the path of happiness.
