Thursday, July 10, 2008

'Someday We Will Be Happy'...That Someday is Today

Author: Anshuman Singh
Type: Life and Happiness

Before reading this post, I would recommend to read the story 'Club 99' (Its a short story and is not going to take more than 2 minutes to read and understand it completely). The link is:
http://anshumansinghchauhan.blogspot.com/2008/07/club-99.html



'Someday We will be Happy'......That Someday is Today

When I first read the story Club 99 the beauty with which the concept of happiness is explained in that story forced me to think on what do we actually do in our life to get this so called happiness. After all Happiness is what matters to us at the end of everything. But we often misinterpret the above statement, as its going to be something special which will happen some day which in fact will make us happy. We interpret 'end of everything' as it appears and wait for that time when we will reach an end point of something which will make us feel happy. Doing this, we miss the happiness which is present all around us in the form of a journey to reach that end point.
We all have something or the other from our past which makes us feel happy, it could be, our 1st class notebook, our collection of stickers, our toys, our study table, our half broken bat, our first bicycle, the roads where we used to ride it, the playground where we used to spend our evenings, moving from the front of our best friends house, old tree which used to be a meeting spot near river, our childhood group photographs of class...etc etc......have we ever asked a question to ourselves, as to what was so special about our childhood, that we still feel happy to think about it, see and touch our old things, walk in the old lanes, searching the old hideouts..but on the other hand, its really difficult to find out instances from our later part of life which will make us feel happy...its only because the things which reminds us of our childhood were the moments where we were happy, living that present moment. There was no fear of future and no regret of the past. It was we in that present moment, at our best, giving our 100% in that present moment, enjoying it at the fullest......but do we ever wonder why now we have to wait for a time when we will be happy, we have to search for reasons to smile, we have to find words before talking to a stranger.....we think what we have is not sufficient and can not make us happy, we think that a little more might provide us something which will make us happy, why, exactly why have this thing happened to us that we often remain either scared or tensed but not happy, although doing any one of them doesn't costs anything, then why do we choose to stay quiet, depressed, tensed, afraid, concerned, frustrated, complaining, regretting, condemning, and much more....when at that time we could have stayed happy? It is because, either we live in future or in past, and doing that we forget what actually matters to us and is in fact in our hand, i.e. the Present. As we grow we make Happiness a phenomenon, just like appearance of a comet, happening only once in years, and that too it last for seconds. Why, Why did suddenly this scarcity of happiness took place in our lives. Why do we have to wait for a saving of some more money to be happy when we have enough to keep us and our family healthy and happy, why do we need to be tensed about getting a bigger house or a bigger car or a new suit or a new pair of shoes or new mobile ....... many endless things just to make us feel happy? Why is it that when we were not employed then we thought that a job paying 5K/month will be enough to make us happy, but now when we are earning much more than expected, why are we still unsatisfied, unhappy and tensed, and keep looking for new better paying job, changing companies, groups, even friends......why? All this is done by us to get a time when we will be happy, but in our present we get so busy waiting for that time, that we forget to appreciate our present, we forget to appreciate the things which we have, which belong to us, which are enough to make us happy & satisfied, we stop observing our surroundings, we stop exploring things, we neglect the happiness around us.....
This attitude not only reduces our mental ability to think and find out solutions but also, effects our actions, our behaviour, our thoughts, our basic nature, our relationships and results in loss of our unique personality.
I still remember how anything and nearly everything appeared like a toy to us when we were kids, we used to live in a world of our own imagination. We used to imagine match box as car and were happy playing with it but now when we own one but still we are not happy and desire for a something bigger, we used to make houses of sand available at the neighbourhoods construction site and were happy watching it, but now when we have enough space for us and our family, then why do we need a bigger house to make us happy, how we used to enjoy listening to one song saved in our toy for thousands of time, but still never got bored and now when we have millions of songs in our computers but still we are unhappy and need more, why were we happy watching only one channel 'Doordarshan' and now unsatisfied with hundreds of available channels....why? exactly why?............We have to ask this question to our self and I am sure the day when we will start finding happiness in things around us, will stay satisfied with what we have, will stop complaining for what we don't have instead will prefer to work in that time, will start enjoying small success, will not be afraid thinking about what will happen in future, rather will plan it , will not regret about what we did in the past, rather will learn from it and will start living, living our present , then we will definitely wont have to wait for a time to feel the magic of happiness.....It will then become part of our daily routine to stay happy and spread happiness, will make us fell at peace and completely satisfied, will help us to bring out our best in terms of potentials, talents and skills and will help us to lead a successful and happy life ahead..
To conclude I would like to say, Happiness is a gift given to us by god, without any wrapper. We purposefully put a thick wrapper of Material things on it and then expect to reach it someday. Dear friends observe and appreciate whatever we have in our present, this will automatically make us happy. One of my friend correctly stated,'Happiness is not a Destination, its a Journey'. Lets not wait for some day or some thing to make ourselves happy. Let us thank god for whatever we have, stay satisfied and happy with it, keep on working without expecting results(GITA), elongate the list of wonderful memories by adding each day to it, lets change 'Staying Happy' from a phenomenon to a habit and live & enjoy our present.

Before closing this post I would like to recall the essence of the book 'The Present' written by Spencer Johnson, it says 'Learn from the Past, Plan for the Future but always live in The Present and Stay Happy'

:-)

9 comments:

RK Shetty said...

Its fantastic one ,ya its true yaar i agree with u................

best of luck

RK Shetty

Unknown said...

Too good...This reminds me of the book : 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living' - by Dale Carnegie...

I really liked the childhood similes....

Keep writing...

anshul bhargav said...

I agree with most of the part, however I will find the 100th coin and also be happy. :-) happiness is a journey not destination just because life is a journey, keep up the pace in life ..!! That is what i beleive.... but u know our thoughts never match :-), people were happy watching doordarshan as the we not knowing what else life has to offer(their vision was limited) not as you have broader vision you know there is no boundry to expectations. this peopels service providers also to improve. As per me most important happiness is staying with family, but still we are here away from family... WHY??

Unknown said...

well said Mr Anshul...but at times we have to do things which are guided by our life. By sharing his thoughts, anshuman is atleast making all of us to think, which infact is of prime importance, so that whenever and wherever we will get a chance we will stay happy and spread the message of happiness :)

Shweta said...

I realy appreciate the thoughts of Anshuman.Its a hidden feeling which has to be serched out by ourself.He enlighten it in a very expressive way.

Nice blog.
Keep writing.

Pradeep Singh said...

You have raised the very basic question and provided the best solution to it - To Live in the present. When we start living in future, we give birth to worry which is the biggest killer of happiness. If we can focus all our energies on living in the present, only then can we implement teachings of Geeta which emphasises on performing our duties without thinking of results for living a fulfilling life!
Let us put it to practice...

Anu said...

Very true yaar.....
I think we 4got to be truly happy as we our invovled in our daily targets n goals.
This thight really make us think beyond our so called happiness.....

Very true...

Anonymous said...

ANSHUMAN,We cannot be happy unless we want to be. We can even be happy while searching for the hundredth coin if we understand the worth of so called happiness to our life

sumeeth tewar said...

Hi Anshuman -
This blog is so impressive to read.
But just want to share a thought, if everyone starts to be happy in the present, there wont be any Gates, Mittals, Ambanis alive...who are always unhappy and want to create something bigger more fabulous than what we have rite now!
So other side of the coin says "Sometimes not being happy with your present allows you to better your future!"