The Illusion Of Happiness

In a world dominated by advancement in technology and connectivity, it's hard to remain ordinary, to live or be ordinary. Before the proliferation of smartphone and cheap data, people were okay living their lives in their own little way, but today with all of the things we see on the internet, it's almost impossible to be at peace with yourself and the kind of life you most likely can afford.

Today, the internet and online social space is dominated by the display of wealth, affluence and seeming 'perfection'. This has driven many people to be disappointed with their relatively decent lives. The internet has redefined what it means to be happy and to have a quality life and livelihood.

It's every man's wish to have some certain things in life. Today, these things can be seen as almost universal, even though they are not. Everybody wants to have money, power, influence, the perfect body, the perfect life etc. That's all good, until you ask the reason for wanting all this. All of man's want today can be summarised to be geared towards satisfying one need; the need for happiness. Today, most people believe happiness stems from one of the aforementioned items above. It's a common belief, especially amongst youth that if one has money and quite a lot of it, he's already guaranteed happiness as he can always make his own happiness.

The truth is, while it's great to be able to achieve great things and milestones, that will not guarantee happiness, reason been that you will always want more, something new, something bigger. The elation, ecstasy and excitement that comes with achieving and crossing milestones are only temporal. It's like drugs as it's effect will only last for a while and you will always want more and more. The feel good feeling that follows such achievements is an illusion of happiness rather than true happiness.

True happiness is a state of being. It's a matter of the mind and has very little to do with achievements or titles or any thing of those sort. True and lasting happiness doesn't and cannot come from things that are temporal. True happiness is something that comes from within. While it's the same principle that works to elate you when you achieve a goal that aso work for true happiness, the difference lies I the source of that 'happiness'.

Those who have mastered the art of true happiness have learnt to draw from a source that seemingly never runs dry. For the Christian, that would be God, his son Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he paid, while for the psychologist, it's something else. To experience this kind of lasting happiness is to detach it from material things and pur it into something more transient.

True happiness comes from a place of genuine contentment. To be really happy in ice, you have to know these:

1. Be contented at all times

2. Learn to be grateful

3. Learn to treat yourself like you are important

4. Accept yourself the way you are.

5. See the beauty in yourself and your uniqueness etc.

I'll be stopping here, to pick it up tomorrow from where I am leaving it. This is because I'm really tired and sleepy from playing football this evening, not to mention that i have to wake up as early as 4:00AM tomorrow. Another week of my field practical training starts tomorrow, so we go again.

Thanks for your time...