Happiness

What is happiness to me? Happiness is a breath of fresh air, it is the warmth of the Sun on your skin after stepping out of a cold room, it is the cool breeze that comes before the rain that leaves you feeling cozy and comfy under your bed covers, it is the relief you feel after crying your heart out and wiping away your tears. Happiness is an experience matched by non, so much so that people become addicted to the feeling.

I try and look for happiness in every aspect of my life. Most do not know this but it can be found in the littlest interactions with the world around us. The world is a really big place but happiness can be found right beside you. I am a very easy-going person, soft and free. Adverse to restrictions and welcoming to release. So, I don’t like stress and I’ve come to realize that I find a lot of my happiness in areas that are free.

Ones curiosity is a powerful thing and my search for happiness leads me to many places, large rooms and tight corners. The smallest sparks have led me on the wildest journey, all in the search of the brightest fire. Before proceeding to far, everyone has at least a vague idea of what happiness feels like. This is idea is how our minds perceive happiness, but how do our bodies perceive happiness. There is this chemical created in glands by our kidneys, this special chemical (to be more direct, neurotransmitter) is what we call dopamine. It is also called the feel-good chemical. Basically, it’s that chemical in your body that is responsible for the happy feeling your mind experiences.

Since it is a positive feeling and we generally work towards things that we can get our desired end results from, how do we do that initiate the release of that chemical into our bodies? For some, happiness only surfaces from the jot of dopamine they get after experiencing a high adrenaline situation. For others, that dopamine shot can come from carrying a child. Hence, these two scenarios mentioned here, the examples measured above and all the other scenarios far between can induce that release of dopamine that gets us “going”.

However, as much as we look for that little spark that leads to a bright fire, happiness can also be found in a pitch-black room. Even in our darkest moments and saddest days, happiness is not far from us. It is not far but it is not easy to reach either. Most people struggle to find happiness in such places and that is fine.

To find happiness in such a place, you must reconfigure yourself. Your outlook on life must change. You must realize that nothing is 100%. No one is 100% positive, nor are they negative, no one is 100% bad or good. There is always one in the other, the yin yang phenomenon. We all must try to embrace this phenomenon, it does so much for one’s mental health and opens your eyes to areas that you would not pay a second thought to. Although, as much as we would love to always find the happiness in both good and bad situations, we should not forget that bad also exists and sadly on some days, that’s all we find.

For me, I look forward to all the places and avenues I can find happiness. There’s an appeal to not knowing what life has in store for you. Yes, we want the good but, don’t run from the bad. Give yourself a chance to find happiness there too.