One can indeed find happiness by appreciating the simple things - the yellow flower that stops you in your tracks while walking along a busy metropolitan street, the cheerful "Good morning," of a cab driver at three in the morning coming from work or the hot cup of coffee with your bread, toast and bacon at breakfast. There is, however, a much more filling happiness beyond just a heightened awareness and conscious appreciation of the things around us.
I myself have subscribed to various self-help materials on this topic. Ranging from learning how money actually buys happiness to the lessons positive psychology offers even by just simply listing things you are grateful for, one can never run out of articles to read after looking up happiness online. But I'll let you in on something, if you want to find happiness and joy, stop thinking of creative ways to entertain and make yourself happy. Serve others.
If you're one of those working for social enterprises, do the best at your work knowing it is for the benefit of your partner communities. If your work is in corporate finance, be excellent at it knowing it is for the organization's cause. If you don't like your work, do it anyway; if not for the compensation, for your team or for the clients your company serves. If that's not going to happen for you at work, make time and serve at a local shelter for the aged on weekends. If your schedule doesn't permit it, maybe you can buy an extra bottle of water at the cafeteria during snack time for the beggar you always pass by when you go out of the office after work. Why not lend your colleague a hand at work or share a smile when someone's having a bad day? Care to give your bus seat to the lady nursing a baby in her arms? When you get home, why not cook dinner for your mom and while you're at it, wash the dishes after? I think you get the drift.
Many people are daunted when service is mentioned. Service is simply doing what we are capable of in whatever situation we are in to help out another person - however simple that may be.
Happiness is not simply something that "happens" in our life and that we only need to be aware and attentive to it. It is also a result of actions we choose to do. The moment we choose to make others happy is the moment we love and give them the respect that they deserve. The moment we do this is the moment we are filled with joy.
"Joy is not a selfish thing to seek, but a selfless thing to find." - Fr. J. Martin, SJ
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