Hello all! I hope you are all doing wonderfully. I would also like to thank my wonderful support system who encouraged me to start this blog. You are a beautiful group of people; don't forget it :)
Okay, so firstly, let's get a MAJOR myth sorted here. Happiness is NOT a destination. It's not a magical place at the end of a rainbow where nothing bad ever happens and life is all sunshine and fairy floss. If you prefer not to be introduced to reality, feel free to stop reading and go back to whatever you were doing. But if you're older than ten, you'll probably have this figured out by now... Hopefully. If not, I'm sorry to break it to you. Someone had to do it.
But let's look at this practically, because it's not really your fault that you think that way. You don't just come up with this idea on your own. You grow up with a bunch of sweet-talking adults who pat you on the head, telling you what a 'princess' or 'strong young man' you are, and on top of that, all your favourite Disney movies start with a damsel in distress living in a parallel universe where everything is a slice of hell and hardship. Then some wonderful and perfect prince rocks up and they run off to a magical kingdom where everyone lives happily ever after. The problem with childhood is you're taught to chase happiness. You're taught that it comes after all the 'bad stuff' is over. You're conditioned to think life is going to fall together exactly the way it does in fairy tales. And then you grow up and wonder if your happy ending will ever happen.
The harsh truth is, they don't happen. Happy endings don't exist. And I'm not just being a cold-hearted evil person who had too many people hurt me to believe in happiness. But we need to distinguish the difference between a 'happy ending' and actual happiness. I can tell you right now, if you're looking for a happy ending, you will never be happy. Like, ever. Yep, I went there.
Life wasn't supposed to be easy. But the difference between happy people and unhappy people, is simply that the former know how to be grateful for what they have, in the moment. Have you ever heard the expression, "The poorest people are usually the happiest" ? I can testify to seeing this quote ring true, over and over. If any of you like to travel, you'll see it, too.
The point is, if you're not happy, you should probably reflect on how grateful you are for what you have. No one has the 'perfect life', period. Even Gatsby died alone, and he had enough money to feed all of Africa. I really could write a three-thousand-word essay on this, but here's the short and sweet version.
I challenge all my wonderful readers, please consider what you think about the most. If the answer to that is a long list of my-life-is-a-disaster-and-I'd-rather-die- type things, then your energy is focused, but it's going the wrong way. If it's so easy to be negative, then what could you possibly lose by re-tuning your energy into positive things? Your mind is a reflection of how you train yourself to perceive the world around you. So it's really a matter of what you do to change that, from the inside-out. Don't wait for everything to be perfect.
You'll be waiting until doomsday. You just need to focus on positive things, and be grateful for what you have right now.
The reason I say happiness can't be found, is because it's already in you. The problem is we don't see it through all the negativity that feeds our misery. So it's really as simple as putting your focus into more positive things. You can't change the people around you, and you can't change your situation (usually), so you're better off focusing on what you can change -- how you choose to look at things. Once you conquer your thought patterns, no matter what's going on around you, you can go through it and come out stronger on the other side.
The fact of the matter is, if you can't learn to be happy exactly where you are, with what you have right now, and whatever you're going through, then you won't be happy when it's over, either. Why? Because you won't relax for five minutes before finding something else that's wrong with your life. Then you'll start eating your feelings away, or moping around wishing your life was different, etc. There isn't a lot in life that's more tragic than living your life in misery. It's just too short.
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