Happiness

“If only I owned those designer sunglasses! If only I was in Hawaii! If only my closet looked like that! I would be the happiest person in the world!”  These are some very common exchanges we hear when walking through the school hallways, on the streets, or in shopping malls. Happiness is such an intangible feeling, and so we often have trouble realizing what true happiness is. It is a simple word paired with a deep and complex meaning. Often, we question whether it is something we can look for as we rummage through clothing racks at Holt Renfrew, or if there’s something more meaningful than mere materialism.

Western society has created a distorted perspective on tangible happiness since they have associated it with materialism, which enables corporations to manipulate the definition of happiness for commercial purposes. Materialism is a tendency to consider material possession and physical comfort over spiritual values, and this tendency has greatly increased with the commercialization of happiness. Think about Valentine’s day. Every year, on February 14th, partners are bombarded with advertisements and promotions from all around them, coercing them into buying material items for their partners to make them happy. Valentine's Day creates record-breaking flower sales and exchanges of over a billion boxes of chocolate because society has wired us to believe that happiness can be created by receiving material goods, thus leading us further from true happiness, which is not found in external factors. In fact, true happiness is drastically different than the fleeting pleasures we might experience from eating a good meal, purchasing a pair of pants, or watching a thrilling movie; relying on external factors is not sustainable and would only bring disappointment as it would mean you have accepted that happiness is out of your control. Happiness should come from within; it should be defined as something that we create and choose. We will find true happiness when we focus on finding inner peace by engaging in mindfulness, optimism, and gratitude every day.

As we debunk the misconceptions around happiness and pleasure, we realize that true happiness is something within our reach and something we can choose to experience. These little choices will accumulate and have a cumulative effect on your life until one day you wake up and realize you are happy. As your perception of happiness shifts, you will see that experiencing true happiness is worth more than any pleasure we might get wrapped in red heart-shaped boxes with sparkly bows. True happiness is a choice, and it all starts with you.