The Right to Pursue Happiness

Not the right to BE happy, but the right to chase happiness, or to try to be happy. Try. Nothing more. Just try… I say this is lame.

Trying is defined as an attempt to do, to test, to endeavor, to give it a shot… not to do or to achieve. This means you can lean back and relax in the role of victim and stick to the old beauty of the if’s.

“If I get a job, if I graduate, if I get a promotion, if somebody loves me, if I get a child – a home – a car – a bonus then maybe, maybe I can be happy.”

And then what? What more will you need to finally be happy? You got a diamond ring? Now you want pearls. You got the pearls, oh that Gucci bag would do you fine. Hell, a woman can’t walk around in knock-offs, you need those Jimmy Choo’s or whatever they’re called. There is no end – once you build a wish list of material objects to meet your happiness expectations, you fall into the rabbit’s hole of hollow needs.

The day I realized being happy wasn’t a right, but a responsibility was the day shit starting happening. Boom. I had to decide to be happy. I had to decide to stop playing the victim, I had to stop whining and just start being happy. Boom.

It’s like learning. You learn about as much as you put out into your learning. Ask questions, study, read, go beyond your comfort zone, and then you will learn – because you took action and took responsibility in your learning process.

Same goes for happiness. Take it. Whatever you need to be happy – but take it from the inside. Start with a smile. That smile will send messages to your brain, like a direct command to feel something gurgling from your stomach. And then smile again knowing it is having positive effects. Sure, you’re brain washing your own self into a psychological white picket fence interior decorating… Who cares, it works.

And laugh. Laugh at anything. Laugh at the duck that nearly runs on top of the water to get away from you. Laugh at the dog running after its tail. Laugh at your boss with the silly hyena laugh. Laugh at the waitress with a piece of toilet paper stuck under her shoe. But laugh with love, not arrogance. Let them in on it, don’t just mock them into inferiority only to make yourself feel better. Boom. More gurgling from the stomach.

Become addicted to that sensation. Give it a name. Give it a color. Give it an image, or a familiar place so when shit starts rolling your way you can close your eyes and remember that sensation. You can escape to it by visualizing it in your head, then you let that emotion roll down to your stomach. Boom.

Being happy does not make you immune from life’s hardships. You’ll lose a job, lose a friend, lose a favorite ring or even lose a child. Being happy is not a vaccine against anger, or frustration, or sadness and fatigue. But it will carry you through that crap.

One day you will be experiencing sadness for a loss, but you will know that inside you, underneath the tears, there is a foundation of joy whispering to you. This inner joy will hold your hand and carry you beyond the clouds. Boom.

Happiness: it should pounce.

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This is my response to the weekly prompt at Studio 30 Plus. Actually, the prompt is “it should pounce.” It was taken from a poem called Silence written by the amazing and gifted writer Thomas Marlowe.