A Simple Trick To Happiness

A SIMPLE TRICK TO HAPPINESS

I know I hark on a lot about happiness, and it's also true that I think about it a lot too. It's just one of those subjects that is so central to every single one of our lives, it's a driving force, it's a matter of so much importance and whether we have it or not can cause us to colour and construct our lives in differing fashions. If I'm feeling pretty happy, I feel like life is good, I'm positive, content, and I feel that I can overcome any problems that may come my way. If I'm feeling unhappy however, I become incredibly dissatisfied with my life, I see the world through pessimistic eyes, and my will to overcome hurdles in my path seems to evaporate into thin air. It's strange isn't it? Anyhow I feel I've mentioned on here before, but a couple of years ago I was just coming out of a particularly difficult part of my life, an emotionally and mentally trying time that was pretty crap but has since gone on to shape who I am and ultimately made me a better person because of it. My perspective on life was a bit askew, and after having had my emotions go pretty wild for a good year or so, when I finally found my feet back on solid ground again I decided it would be a good idea to start afresh with everything, reign in my emotions and pretty much start from square one again. I had somehow allowed my happiness to become dependent on entirely the wrong things, somewhere along the way, and subsequently it lead me to feeling rather unhappy instead. I was trying to seek happiness in all the wrong places, and it was only when I finally turned a corner in my life that I realised where I had been going wrong and how I was going to fix it. And the best thing was the answer was incredibly easy and simple: enjoy and appreciate the little things in life and the world around you.

I realise that it sounds a bit cheesy and naff, and it's some what of an anticlimax when you're half expecting the answer to be something rather spectacular, but the beauty in that little trick I found, a trick that has contributed massively to my overall happiness ever since, is that it's just so simple that it's in turn completely accessible to anyone and everyone. Once you realign your expectations, take a step back and begin to get some perspective, you'll start to realise that happiness can be found quite literally anywhere. For me I've taken it right back to the extent that my happiness starts by being informed by the littlest things in life, and this can include anything from the gradual motion felt when riding an escalator, the greenness of the plants outside just after it's rained, the way raindrops trickle down the windows, the lights of the city twinkling on the horizon, hugging someone you love, the peaceful quiet and tranquillity of the early morning, little things people do to show they care, when your favourite song comes up on shuffle, observing the way two lovers look over their shoulders at one another after they've parted... It's just these little things, little observations you make of the world around you, and I've managed to force myself to come back to square one and start to really notice, appreciate, enjoy and observe these things, contained within the world around me, in so much more detail than I ever did before. Writing them down it really does sound so cheesy, but I don't mind laughing about it because these simple but beautiful little things really do give me so much joy, and there's a million more I could tell you about because the best thing is they're endless. 

If you should choose to let the little things in life be the source of your happiness, joy and contentedness, you essentially have an infinite fountain of happiness, a never ending supply of things to make you smile, feel happy, brighten your life a little bit at a time. And yes so you might have an awful day at work, or maybe you fight with someone you love, or you fail an exam, but I find that at some point you'll have a moment which contains a little pocket of happiness somewhere within it, for example maybe you spend five minutes laughing with a stranger you start talking to on the bus, maybe you get home and find you have a spare bar of chocolate you completely forgot about, or you look outside the window as you get ready for bed and notice that the stars are shining in the sky. And suddenly you start to realise that things aren't all that bad, and that actually the world isn't such a bad place after all, things will get better, and it's the little things that give you these fragments of hope. Of course like everyone else I have those bigger moments that give me an overwhelming feeling of happiness too, and that's truly wonderful but it can only last so long, which is why seeking happiness in all those smaller moments is so important because it sustains you and helps to make sure you're nearly always on the right side of happiness, just about. You're always just happy enough to feel content and retain your optimism, which in turn makes life and the world seem so much better as a result.

So to conclude, honestly I don't know if I've quite explained myself properly, but I've tried my best, and if from reading this post you find you start to take a step back and see life through fresh new eyes, noticing the beauty, wonder and happiness in little moments that you didn't quite catch before, and start to allow those little things to be the root of your overall happiness, or a least part of it, then I think I've done my job just about... :)