Happiness

It is very ambitious to attempt to describe happiness, to draw a line leading to it, or just to advise anyone on how to achieve it, but actually it should be something rather simple. I guess there is a long and complicated psychological definition of what being happy is, and everyone probably knows how it feels, but the main problem for so many people is how to find happiness.

This leads us to another question: where to find it? Well, it shouldn't be hard to find things in your life that makes you happy. Unfortunately, today's social problems make the concept of happiness blend with the concept of money, of idealistic bodies, fame and etc. This is where we stumble and we fall.

We cannot mix these concepts. Happiness is happiness, idealized bodies, fame and all these superfluous things are what our culture makes us think we want. There is a great Brazilian song which says: 'Eu desejo que você ganhe dinheiro, pois é preciso viver também e que você diga a ele, pelo menos uma vez, quem é mesmo o dono de quem.', which means: 'I hope you make money, too, because it is needed to live, but may you show it who is the owner of who.' Money is not happiness, only a means to live, and then you can be happy.

We must find our happiness in each little thing we do in life. We must live lightly, and get happiness in each little act of the everyday life. It doesn't mean that we must do only what we like, but that we must try to like everything we do. "But how can I possibly like everything I do?" so many things can do bad things to us, make us feel sad and depressed, but we must think of what Abraham Lincoln said: 'Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.'

To look at things in a good way, to make our minds up to be happy, we need to be at peace with who we are, to believe in ourselves, love ourselves, and work for ourselves. Do your best at everything you're going to do, be the best person you can be. How do you want to be remembered by the people who have met you? I want to be remembered as someone they were glad to meet, so I do everything I can to help people, and it feels great.

If you do everything it says here, you can stop looking for some one thing to make you happy - for you will get satisfaction, love and happiness from everything and everyone in your life. This is the biggest lesson I took out of life so far, and I hope it helps someone.