Happiness: The Attainment

How does one attain Happiness?

I suppose I should start this off with the definition of happiness. According to Wordnet happiness is "a state of well-being characterized by emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy", or "emotions experienced when in a state of well-being". So perhaps the real question is how does one come into a state of well-being? The answers are varied of course; depending on location, culture, personal beliefs, and so on.

However, here in the United States happiness and well-being is often based entirely around how much money one makes, or how successful one is. The truth of the matter is that our idea of "happiness" has been reduced to ruin by the years of social/media influences. True happiness is something that comes from anything but money. Franklin D. Roosevelt even said, "Happiness is not the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." But perhaps it's even beyond achievement and effort.

Reflecting on his early mornings spent walking through the produce market the (then) homeless Laurie Seagel wrote, "I was joyous watching the beauty of existence." Later he wrote, "I did have an acute sense of something like regret or sorrow that other people were not enjoying existence as much as I was then. If only they could sit more quietly and look, listen, feel. I felt that people could live better that way and that society would be better, life would be better that way." If a man can be joyous in merely watching and experiencing something as mundane as a produce market, then perhaps this "search" for happiness is in vain; and happiness is something to be found within yourself.

Happiness cannot be so simplified, so tangible. The true meaning of happiness is vague, personal and certainly indefinite. Helen Keller wrote, "Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves." First for the other fellow.

Albert Schweitzer said, "I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." He is compared to Nietzsche, Tolstoy, and even Francis of Assisi. Along the same lines as these Buddha said, "Happiness comes from when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others."

When I was first asked this question by my dear friend Tiffany, I thought she was speaking to me specifically and the answer that came to mind was as follows: "I gain happiness through all sorts of things, mostly gratification from completing a task, or even just starting one." She then explained to me that her question was more general and not directed to my own personal attainment of happiness. So on my search for the answer, I came across this quote from Helen Keller and realized how wrong I was in my thoughtless answer. "Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."- Hellen Keller

So through all of this, I have learned several things, the one most dear to me being how I should truly be attempting to obtain happiness. I hope this gives someone (anyone) else some things to consider.