Happiness is like a warm cup of coffee in the morning... you want it every day

My recent brush with a knee injury leading to a complicated surgery involving MPFL reconstruction, multiple cartilage repair and the patella relocation lead me to make a deep dive evaluation on the meaning of “happiness”. When the incident happened about six weeks ago during a PE lesson at school I hardly had the disposition to evaluate my feelings through the fogginess of my brain caused with mind numbing pain . Thankfully, I did not fill myself with recrimination or wallow in self pity. Getting well took precedence over everything else .. well enough to get back to sports, to school, to play with my friends and hop back to normalcy. Today as I slowly wobble on my crutches and the simple daily tasks dont seem unsurmountable endevours anymore, I take time to express my belief that having a postive frame of mind and finding happiness in the unpredicatability of the whole situation has been my greatest strength.

And sure enough, this year 2020 has been much more daunting for thousands others around the world filled with fear, despondency and despair. But the saying we kept hearing in our childhood and in which I truly believe in is that, that “every cloud has a silver lining”. Being happy is a choice we make and sometimes one’s only chance at finding that silver lining. It is the most important feeling in life and also something which is firmly within our control.

The word happiness is derived from the Norse word happ meaning ‘luck’ or ‘chance’. It is also related to the Old English word hæpic meaning ‘equal’. Early senses of the word ‘happiness dating back to the 1500s, are still very much in use, such as “good luck,” “success,” and “contentment,”. So, ‘good luck’, ‘equality’, ‘success’, these are all things that we crave for, but what will this really bring to us?

“Happiness”!!. Happiness is the end goal for everyone. Whether we seek, power, knowledge, peace, money, we want these with the hope that it will bring us happiness. Happiness is that feeling that consumes us when we feel that we can unconditionaly smile and that “all is good”. When Buddha said that one can achieve enlightenment he meant that one has found the end of suffering. He used this negative definition so that people wouldn’t think it as something extraordinary or miraculous. While this may mean different things for different people, I believe that he alluded towards “happiness”. When one is truly happy, all problems cease to exist or diminish.

However, for most people, happiness is never a permanent state of affairs, because in life things are bound to go wrong. But if we manage to stay positive, we will always find a way to prevail. For me , I have found ways to find my happiness in the mundane. I look forward to my online classes which I used to find extremely tedious earlier. I follow matches and tournaments with passion ,read and play games on my new gaming device. I look forward to interacting with my friends virtually and enjoy the VVIP status in my family. Even my younger brother seems much more bearable these days. I have signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh program in school where I have taken up specific targets to get back to sports by early part of 2021. And I really love my school subjects these days even English writing, as you can see.

I understand that this may seem utopian and that our problems may be much more complicated ,but even in our sorrow or misery we can choose to be happy. The famous Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez said : “No medicine can cure what happiness cannot” . Scientific evidence suggests that being happy may have major benefits for our health. Being happy promotes a healthy lifestyle. It may also help combat stress, boost our immune system, protect our heart and reduce pain. What’s more, it may even increase our life expectancy. Hence I consider myself lucky to be living in UAE where the government has marked “Happiness” as its top priority and has also married it to “Fitness and Health” chalking out a winning combination.

Here, I would end my article with a saying from The Dalai Lama .

“Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”

― Dalai Lama XIV