Happiness

​What is happiness? 

Do you find it? Does it find you? Do you create it?  These are the questions that overplay in my head when I ponder the topic of happiness, am I truly happy? Once nonexistent in my head, happiness has now become a notion that is overthought. In my youth, I did not think if I was happy. I simply let myself be. 

What I would like to believe is that we create happiness, but I do not think it is that simple. Sometimes we find happiness, other times it finds us, but with both, we somehow, someway create happiness. All intertwining and overlapping. 

Happiness can be created through the people, things, and places that we have found and what have found us. When someone unexpectedly comes into your life, they can bring you great happiness. In this instance, happiness has found you, and now with that other person, you can further create happiness. On the contrary, when you choose to partake in an activity or hobby that you know you enjoy, you are actively finding and creating your happiness. 

Happiness is a feeling, it’s a place, it’s a person, it’s a food, it’s a state of being, it’s a conversation, a moment in time, a smile, a hug, a kiss, an embrace, it is a never ending list of possibilities that pertains to the individual. It is whatever you want it to be, wherever you want to create it.   

For me personally, there are many notions that bring me great happiness. Sunsets, walking, being outside in the open air, baking, spending time with friends, or even what I am doing right now, writing. Some are free, others not, but in each, I have created happiness through what I have found and chosen, or what has found me.  

And while most believe that happiness is a destination that we must get to, it is quite the opposite. Happiness is the journey, finding the good and creating the good, even when there is bad. Happiness can be hard to feel or find - especially with the amount of negativity that we experience in our lives. But with that, I am always reminded that even in the worst of situations, it can be found, created, experienced, and felt. Everything does not need to be and will not be perfect in order to experience happiness. “Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.” 

So again, even after writing all this, I ask myself, what is happiness?