Happy and Hapiness

I was going through my school boxes (hoping to apply the 5S system in my personal life) when I came across my notes from my Ethics class. Written was a quote by Aristotle: “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

It sounds so simple. But why are so many people unhappy? Why do people who seem to have everything a regular person would want in his/her entire life end up unhappy? You can sit on a pile of gold (or dollars and pesos, whichever you prefer) and still feel empty and unhappy.

The quest for happiness transcends culture, institutions, race, and socio-economic classes. Everyone wants to be happy. The results of my Google search proved that happiness is a major topic in everyone's life. When I typed happiness, I got 253,000,000 results! Amazing! Sadness on the other hand only yielded 16,600,000 results. Huge difference! It's a relief to know that there are more things online about happiness than sadness. I typed happy and got a much bigger result with 2,510,000,000. Imagine that! Over two billion.

But these results were just from one word searches. What about people who are specifically interested in being happy? I searched for "how to be happy" and I got an overwhelming 1,730,000,000 results. There must be so many people who are unhappy that these much information about how to be happy is available online. I scanned the results and they included tips, steps and ways to be happy.

Since happiness is an intrinsic feeling there must be specific searches relating to being happy with one's self. I typed how to be happy with your self and got 862,000,000! Does this necessarily translate to millions of people unhappy with themselves? Maybe.Maybe not. But then again, this information is available because there are people looking for them. Two results that caught my attention were those with the words 'secrets to being happy' and 'how to trick your self into being happy.'

Happiness comes naturally to those who have decided in their heart that they are going to be happy. Our world is full of tricks and crossroads. There will be failures and disappointments. But they're all part of the pie called happiness. Aristotle also said that “Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.” So let us find that appropriate spot and enjoy every minute of it. Life is a journey to happiness.