Happiness

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Happy mental states may also reflect judgements by a person about their overall well-being. 

Happiness is starting up your car and your all-time favorite song coming on. 

Happiness is sharing a smile with your friendly 80-year-old neighbor from across the street.

Happiness is receiving 100% on a test for which you spent the entire weekend studying. 

Happiness is uniquely experienced, but similarly felt by babies, teenagers, adults, dogs, and even plants when rain fills their deeply seeded roots. We too feel happiness deeply, making its way from our bellies all the way up to our chests. The explosion of chemicals in our brain creates smiles, giggles, and if we're lucky, singing. 

Sometimes, however, happiness is not so easy to identify. Dopamine, or the "happy drug" is triggered by a plethora of experiences varying from sex to chocolate to snuggling with a chunky baby. The most intense happiness is shared with or brought upon by others. I certainly feel happy when I am in the company of like-minded, optimistic, and imaginative people. Happiness is wonderful when it is shared with a person or several people, but one must be careful if they rely on another to feel this glorious emotion.

When we give other people the power to fill our lives, we become far too vulnerable and dependent. From this state, we lose the ability to pick ourselves up, encourage ourselves, and rely on our own judgement/instinct. Let's say for whatever reason the provider leaves our life; we are forced to find happiness elsewhere. For someone who is not used to finding that happiness from within, one might turn to another stimulus, often providing short-term, instant gratification. Food, sex, drugs, alcohol, and the like are easy "filler-uppers" for people who are lost in finding exactly what makes them happy.

As someone who has struggled with following my heart and has instead found happiness in what others prefer, I have discovered that you will become even closer with your friends and family when you are independently happy. Instead of pushing down our own wants, desires, and happiness, we must bring them to surface and embrace them. If you can determine what it is that makes you get out of bed every morning, whether or not there are people around to "make proud" or "prove yourself to", then you're on the right path.