“Happiness is a cute little baby refusing to let go of your finger” – Unknown
Often when we think of happiness, we think of an upward staircase where life slowly gets better and better.
We think about achievements, reaching certain goals…
And well, moving forward towards a better place in our life.
We view happiness as a goal…or a destination.
And we hope that in time, we can make happiness our default position.
But the truth is, this concept of happiness is driving many people into feeling hopeless, disappointed and even depressed.
Here’s why…
Most of us are striving for a hollow goal
The majority of us tie happiness to the futile idea of perfection.
We want our life to reach an ideal state. And that only then can we truly be happy.
But we can never really reach that ideal state.
Because there will always be situations in our life that will cause us disappointment, frustration, anger, insecurity, worry and hurt.
That is just the reality of life. We are beautifully imperfect human beings and we live in an imperfect world.
This perfect state just does not exist.
So how do we find happiness then?
The real meaning of happiness
Happiness is a constant journey – not a goal to be reached.
Happiness is about noticing and appreciating all those tiny and special moments that happen all around us, every single day.
Maybe for you, happiness is going for a nice walk with the person you love, and feeling an incredible sense of love and gratefulness.
Maybe it’s that moment that you smile as you watch your children playing on the playground, and you feel like a proud parent.
Maybe it’s watching the sun set and feeling overwhelmed and fascinated by its beauty.
Maybe it’s sitting on the couch with your best friend, feeling excited as you’re about to watch a movie. And you think “I’m so happy to have such an amazing friend”.
“Happiness is a cute little baby refusing to let go of your finger” – Unknown
Happiness is about noticing all the TINY, INCREDIBLY SIMPLE yet beautiful moments in your life.
Maybe the moment of happiness lasts only for a minute, or even seconds.
Maybe it’s as simple as a tiny thought that crosses your mind.
But even so, if you can appreciate all those tiny moments in each day, think about how they will add up.
All these small moments in life are the essence of happiness.
Happiness is right under our fingertips
Happiness is right in front of us, waiting to be embraced.
Yet we’re often too pre-occupied to even notice it.
We are too busy waiting for a big golden nugget to drop from the sky, and into our lap.
We imagine a life where we have little stress and financial difficulties, very few relationship problems and where we have control over our circumstances.
And we get caught up on the “if only’s”…
“If I only had this, I’d be happy. If I only had that, I’d be happy”.
And rather than embracing the beautiful moments around us every day, we over look them. And we miss out.
We miss out on true happiness because we are so fixated on perfection – an illusion and a concept of happiness that does not exist.
Think about it. Even the richest or most famous people in the world, who seemingly have it all, end up depressed and unhappy.
Don’t overlook the greatest joys in life. Don’t buy into the illusion on happiness.
Rather, be mindful every day. Recognize and appreciate all those small moments that put a smile on your face. Appreciate every second that you feel peaceful, secure, belong, loved and grateful.
When challenges arise, be okay with it – accept it as a normal and even valuable part of this journey called life – because they make us stronger, wiser, more capable and more ‘whole’ as a person.
If you can learn to do this…
If you can shift your view of happiness and be content with what you already have…
You will be amazed at how simple finding happiness really is.
What are your thoughts on happiness? Share your thoughts with me in the comment section!
I love this statement from your post: “Happiness is about noticing and appreciating all those tiny and special moments that happen all around us, every single day.” I completely agree! It’s easy to register and remember big moments that are special – they happen every now and then and we cherish them. Tiny special moments, however, happen frequently – every single day as you said – and we often take these special little occurrences for granted it seems. We definitely need to take more note of them as they happen – recognize the special moments – and let them add to our happiness daily. Thank you for this post and wonderful reminder.
Thanks! I’m really happy you’re feeling inspired. Ever since I began to try to appreciate the tiny moments each day, I have felt so much more content, and I’m able to enjoy each moment so much more. It’s incredible what can happen when you just change your attitude and mindset a little.
“Enjoy the little things in life, because one day you will look back, and realize they were the big things.”
I think this quote sums it up! 🙂 Life is about enjoying and appreciating each day – one day at a time.
Nice article! Positive and true!
Thanks! Always happy to share some inspiration!
Thank you for your inspiring articles. God bless you!
To love and be loved is happiness to me.
Hi Maya. My pleasure! I completely agree…I think that all those tiny little beautiful moments in life are created because of the love we share and receive from others. Without love, there would be no true happiness. God bless you too!
Very positive message. I especially like the quote “Happiness is a cute little baby refusing to let go of your finger” – Unknown. I’ve never heard that quote or happiness put that way before. But i like it. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in where we’re going and what’s ahead that we don’t take time to just enjoy what we already have. Happiness as tiny moments – I can get behind that. have you ever just sat back and looked around at all the beauty that’s surrounds us? Sometimes I do that and it gives me a brand new perspective on the world. It can be a beautiful place sometimes.
Hi Steve. It’s comforting to realize that happiness is something that we can experience right now and each day. It’s leaves us with a sort of peaceful feeling. There’s something really powerful about letting go of the idea that we can only be happy once we reach a certain place in our life.
This new perspective has truly given me such an amazing feeling. And I’m so glad that I’ve been able to share that with you!
Happiness in life is like a shadow it is like a mirage which we are all running after without even properly understanding it while sadness in life if like real body which we remain attached to it through out life . Our life start with crying and end with crying through out our life we are running after happiness which does not exist . The stage where we are free of all problems and enjoy ourselves it term happiness. Our real stage of life is happiness we disturb our own happiness by adding pain and problems to our life if we want happiness we have to reduce pain and problem of our and others
Pain and suffering can not be removed we have to bears it change our attitude toward it or have patience .
there are unhappiness due to deformity disease disability which we cant do anything expect learn to overcome it and be happy . Failure are not real you can change your failures into success
Money is not happiness in itself it only help in reducing suffering , relationship is important , peace is better than war for happiness . name fame are temporary . making sacrifice making other happy also give happiness.
When we blame luck we are unhappy when we give up desire we can be happy . Happiness come from inside and happiness come from world together making each other happpyy
Hi Qadri. Thanks for sharing your thoughts so deeply with us. “Happiness is like a shadow. It’s like a mirage we are all running after without properly understanding it” – I love the way you have put his. I think it’s so true. We are all running after this ‘idea’ of what happiness is – but we have it wrong. We don’t understand it properly. Like you said, we have to accept that there will always be failures, pain and suffering. But we have to approach life with patience and a positive attitude. Happiness is something we choose from the inside. I believe that we can do this through appreciating all the little, positive moments each day and accepting that we will never reach a ‘perfect’ state in our life. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! Looking forward to hearing from you again.