We all seemingly live our days wanting to BE HAPPY, but what happens along the way that prevents us from reaching that goal? On the contrary, many live stressed, frustrated, and exhausted…
The world has been changing, and so have human interests. It all starts there, with knowing and recognizing who we truly are: HUMAN BEINGS in a continuous and endless search for different needs. However, we largely forget about BEING.
We are too busy producing, that is, DOING; therefore, people’s primary objective seems to have shifted from BEING HAPPY to HAVING more and more of everything. We know the price of many things, but how many do we truly know and appreciate the value of?
The sad thing is that this obsession with having more is not enough to give us that true sense of inner FULFILLMENT. And we don’t want to realize that HAPPINESS is not outside of us, because happiness is an internal state. Each of us is entirely responsible for and capable of creating it. It has absolutely nothing to do with our bank account, or where we live, or even whether we own or rent the place. It has nothing to do with the name of the school our children attend, or the brand of bag or belt we can buy. I know many happy people who have no money, and many unhappy ones who have it in abundance. I know people who only have a bicycle for transportation and enjoy it immensely, and others with luxury cars who drive them overwhelmed, hysterical, and fed up.
HAPPINESS, therefore, lies in BEING, in how well I know myself, in how I take care of myself, in how much I give myself all those things that can’t be found in a department store or the corner shop. Like self-confidence, strength of body and spirit, the inner peace with which I live each day, the fortitude to face any situation beyond my control, the capacity to enjoy simple, everyday moments with family or friends—that is happiness: treasuring precious moments at the end of a long or complicated day, appreciating who I am, the essence within myself and others.
It lives there, it is born there, it resides within each of us and within our being, which lives or survives malnourished because most of our energy and time are occupied with doing in order to have. And I ask myself at the end of the day: To have what? Even if some people manage to get the car, the house, the spouse, the children, and the dog they wanted, I’m still postponing my own happiness…
It’s up to each of us to take stock, to recognize what we’re really looking for, to realize that we must stop this excessive obsession with wanting to HAVE more, believing that only in this way will we FEEL good or better. We must stop looking outside ourselves and instead FIND IT WITHIN.
