Happiness is not known to many of us. It is just a term thrown around in the form of quotes, or as a winning card in aN argument. Usually mistaken for pleasure, or temporal joy, this is a kind of emotional state of mind not acquired through a quick-fix or an instant solution.
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
― John Lennon
This may be one of the most common quotations, yet it is under-appreciated and not clearly looked at and believed in for its significance in our lives. We are all too caught up in our own lives to know and feel happiness. The simplest and most common time-bound activities that we jump in and out of daily, majorly serve only to drive us away from happiness.
With such simple activities and tasks making us run like our lives were dependent on them, just try to remember the state of turmoil our mind is thrown into when an unexpected situation arises – be it something that demands an urgent response, or a crisis that test our mettle.
Fortunately, such occurrences are few compared to the good times we have, but sadly those ‘good’ times, are not understood, appreciated and realized for their worth. Even the small things at times leave us drained. It is like everything is working against you, and preventing you from feeling that joy, those vast reserves of happiness that you once had bubbling inside when you were a kid. As a beautiful example, here is a video, that will resonate with that child-like spirit which is now asleep within us.
When you see this video towards the end you will realize what happiness is, you will see what being peaceful and loving feels like, and it may even remind you of that positively vibrant energy that coursed through your body, once.
If it reminds you of a moment in your past, when you were a kid, then go and relive that moment, do what you were doing when what you were doing made you forget about time and everything else, relive it again and again until it becomes your life. At the age of three he already knows, ‘what happiness is’ and ‘what he wants from life’.
“My dream is to make people happy because I am happy.”
– Zhang Junhao (the kid in the video)
Here, I see the birth of a leader, heading into the future to become a great man. But again, all these terms-greatness, leadership, happiness, are subjective aren’t they. The definition of happiness may different for me than it is for you, similarly, the concept of leadership may mean something totally else to you.
But when you will see this video towards the end, you will see the 3-year-old kid standing there, you will notice the glimmering hope in his eyes, the unwavering enthusiasm, and the peaceful calm, you will see not only happiness, but you will see yourself. And in that moment, you will find the definition of life and happiness that we all share.
Imagine if each one of us were like that three-year-old. There is nothing much left to say ahead, as there would be no reason whatsoever to talk about it. The world would just be living and breathing, truly and wonderfully, like a fountain of endless life, peace and happiness.
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