Never Ending Happiness

“Happily Ever After” – a phrase which makes us believe it is the end of a story. We always want to enjoy life and be happy. This makes us plan a lot of things like our vacations, special days, ME time etc. but we never associate happily ever after to happiness. It is always considered synonym for “The End” which has eventually made us believe that in reality “happily ever after” never exists. So, let’s change the perception and bring in a new perspective – “Never Ending Happiness”.

Our lives are filled with ups and downs. Ups are the results of the struggles which we do while we are down and then when we take life for granted it brings us back down to realise the value of staying up. When the whole life is a circle of struggle, gaining out of struggle, losing it again and again only to struggle and win that back, how can happiness be never ending? This is what we fail to understand. We have learnt to enjoy positive outcomes, being on the top, success, but we have never been taught to enjoy the journey of everything good or bad in life. We have always heard everyone saying: have a goal, be ambitious, what do you want to become when you grow up, be focused, 2 of years of commitment for 12^th, 4 years of engineering, then you can enjoy life etc., all these made us lose the joy of journey. Happiness doesn’t lie in destination alone. Destination is “The End” – our happily every after. Happiness lies in every little thing you do to reach that destination – my “Never Ending Happiness”. When we learn to enjoy the journey, its challenges, difficulties, tiny achievements, big roadblocks, we gift ourselves never ending happiness. Why do we cherish the pain after we reach the goal and not while reaching? Because we are struggling to create that happily ever after or in other words “The End”.

As parents we ensure to have the best for our kids but still there are complaints and every single day, we struggle to search for that happily ever after. Have we thought and taught how to find happiness in what we have because inorder to get what we have; we did go through our share of struggle. Neither a small chocolate nor a big car comes easily. Each moment has a price, but the difference is in how we see it and how we pay for it. We focus on providing comfort and ensure security. In this process we lose track of when the same comfort and security gets replaced by habit and attitude. 99% of our life is a journey and 1% is destination. We all learnt that we must focus on that 1% because that is where we get our happily ever after. As a very obedient and good student we not only learnt this lesson but for years we have been teaching everyone the same – focus on “The End”.

I always tell my colleagues, the day before the vacation is the busiest day. We are so focused on finishing all our work, we end up being stressed. But have you given a thought about how that glimpse of vacation plan keeps us lively through that stressful day? The value of such thoughts contributes to our never-ending happiness. When do you consider start of the vacation? Is it when you reach the destination? I consider when we first get the thought. Every moment after that thought brings a smile within you. Shopping, planning, packing, all are part of the vacation which brings joy. The moment you share that news with someone, it triggers something pleasant. All this is the journey which keeps the happiness alive. We tend to stop ourselves by saying: ok! Let’s enjoy when we reach there. Why restrict happiness when it can be with you always in abundance? Cherish that never ending happiness and stop chasing the “Happily Ever After”.

The moment I decide to postpone my happiness is when I start neglecting its value in my life. We adults have a thought that kids don’t remember anything so why spend a lot of money and take them to places. Once they are big enough to remember, we will plan bigger vacations. Memory is something which is personal, and custom made for every individual irrespective of their age.  What gives me joy is not the only definition of joy. What a 5year old remembers from a vacation may be different from what a 50year old remembers. But both do enjoy equally. Happiness never comes with discounted price. It is always 100%, be it in your 99% of the journey or at that 1% of your destination. So always remember, happiness can be never ending if you learn to live every moment of your life with gratitude and the right attitude.

A problem always comes with a frown, but the solution comes with a smile. Focus on that solution and learn to find that smile for yourself. When we focus on protecting our loved ones giving them security, comfort, and carefree life we deny them of finding their own solution for all their problems. No matter how comforting your life is that frown faced problem will always make its way into your life. If you don’t let the person you love, take responsibility of their life, they will only learn to live with that problem because you don’t have to make any effort to let that problem be where they are but you have to put a lot of effort to search for those solutions which come accompanied with those smiles. Teach your kids to enjoy finding solutions but you don’t find it for them. There is no fun in letting someone else play the game for you. When we play cards, my dad takes my cards and plays in some rounds of the game. He does that when his cards are bad and mine are good. For him to do that, he must first drop his game. Life also works similarly. When you take charge of someone else’s problem, you must first let go of your life but then you play your game with someone else’s cards. Here neither the person owning the life gets the chance nor do you live your life. At that moment it feels comforting but in the long run we realise letting someone else take charge only made us escape for that moment but never helped us learn what was meant for us. Each smiling solution makes us realises there is happiness in every pain and every frowning problem teaches us that there is never a happily ever after.

Never ending happiness is a thought which makes us believe there is hope in every situation.
Never ending happiness is an emotion which makes us sail through every wave of life.
Never ending happiness is a feeling which makes us bring joy back to life.

Learn the trick of finding happiness in every hidden moment of the journey because destination is always known, it is the journey which hides those surprises which can spill the frown and smilie faced balls all through our lives. We always believe sorrow is permanent and happiness is short lived. Think again! Why do you smile when you look at an old photo album if that happiness did not have a never-ending life? It is our perception which makes us look for happily ever after. Now is the time to change your perspective towards that and start learning to believe in “Never Ending Happiness”. The power of joy can always make your “The End” as the “New Beginning” which will always continue to enjoy the never-ending happiness.