Adam Josh: Brog

I Tweeted yesterday,

"How can trash rummaging dirt poor Africans have smiles on their faces? Because - HAPPINESS IS A CHOICE(not a fish you can catch :). Now that you know that, you're officially a kung foo space man. Go ninja kick some sadness in the face!"

So I've decided to write out some more thoughts on this topic.

When I was about 16 I remember writing "I live my life to be happy, if there is a God that frowns on that, then I don't like that God."

Here we are 14 years later, and I'd like to modify my statement. Hopefully this brog will clarify.

I'm sure you are aware of all the celebrities and well-to-do people who openly admit they aren't "happy", so I'll save you all my examples.

I was thinking I could write about the spiritual side of "happiness", but then decided not to when I remembered that I know several so-called spiritual people of every type of religion who are miserable 24-7. Emo kids could only dream of being so emo as to blow themselves up - haha. So you heard me say it here first - spirituality in itself isn't the answer to happiness. Although I do freely admit that I personally couldn't truly be happy without my relationship with our common Creator.

I've come to the conclusion through my studies and travels and last decade of living that more than anything else, happiness is a choice. Albeit a harder one for some versus others. Especially for those of us who have a tendency to internalize other people's emotions. As the picture indicates at the top, financial well-being doesn't seem to hold any quantitative hold over the emotional state of happiness. People doing life in prison can be happy. Insane people can be happy. Rich and poor alike can be happy. Your very life can crumble around you and you could still be happy. As the song says, "in every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double, don't worry, be happy".

I'll be honest, somewhere along the line between childhood and adulthood I think there was an attempt to steal my happiness. I think for a while I let my guard down and allowed this theft to take place. Admittedly, I have spent quite a fair amount of time in depression and sadness. But to be fair, I think some pretty good songs came out of it. Depression leading to change is profitable. Sadness leading to resolution is profitable. Depresison leading to dark places and death isn't profitable to anyone, least of all to those people who care about you. There will be those who argue that some people are in need of medication to be happy, and to those people I'd say that if you honestly believe that, then you're probably right. I won't get into psychiatry or the fact that Big Pharma would like nothing more than to label every single human on Earth as having some sort of illness which they can sell you the "cure" for. 

So how can those kids in Slumdog Millionaire truly be happy? Don't they know they haven't yet acquired all the accessories of Western modernity? But there they are, happy kids, playing in the streets.

Or if that's not good enough for you, check this out - dirt poor Liberians, some of them heart eating cannibals, with smiles on their faces.

Maybe you'll counter with "they aren't truly happy Adam".

Whose to say? Are you to say?

Happiness is a state of mind and heart, and attitude, a frequency. Some can hold this state of mind longer than others. Some think that drugs, alcohol, money, success, or certain "things" will grant them this feeling of happiness. Some think happiness is like a fish you can catch. Now I disagree, now I realize that all along, happiness has been a choice. For you and I can clearly see those who have plenty who aren't happy, and those who have nothing being truly happy - reinforcing the fact that happiness is in fact a choice, and it's up to the individual person how long they choose to hold this happiness in their heart. We can allow it to be stolen, we can talk ourselves out of it. Living in this Western Secularized modern society, we are given daily lists of things we don't have, things we need, and things our friends have that we don't. These lists stack up beside our happiness and the weaker of us have decided to allow these lists in times passed to overshadow our state of happiness. Well friends, I'm here to tell you it's time to change. We can choose to be happy. Find something to be happy about, let it resonate with you, let the happiness emanate from your heart, it will find other things to resonate with and you will attract more happiness to yourself, not less. You will notice people asking you if you are high, you will notice people getting angry, but best of all - you will notice those to whom you transmit your happiness, and that my friends, is a priceless commodity.

We as a species have an incredible ability to acknowledge insurmountable adversity and in the face of that adversity, resolve not to allow it to affect our overall state of happiness. Happiness is our choice.

So come what may, my new challenge to myself is to see how long I can hold this state of happiness in my heart, and how big I can grow it.

Let's find a way to get back to our childlike happiness. We can do it.

Choose to be happy.

Believe it or not, you actually already made your choice :)