Finding Your Happiness

“The grass might not always be greener on the other side, but the sun definitely shines brighter when you’re happy.”

If I’m being honest, I don’t think I really understood the gravity of what this means until the last few weeks.

When you’re in a situation, it is so easy to just get bogged down in it. It is so easy to let yourself be consumed by the struggle, by the stress and the anger and the sadness of whatever you’re going through. Most of the time we don’t even realise we are doing it until we stop. Day after day, it’s all you can think about, its all you eat, sleep and breath.

The worst part about it, is that its not even like you realise. Its not even like you know that you’re doing it. And without realising you are becoming your problems. They’ve swallowed you whole, and now you can’t separate between what your situation is and who you are. It’s such a horrible feeling. Going around all the time with this massive weight bearing on your shoulders, not knowing what to do. Sinking into the sand, not by choice, but because essentially you just don’t know how to save yourself.

But here is something that I have learnt. You don’t need to fix your problems. Most of the time you can’t fix your problems, which is why they weigh down on you so much. All you have to do is smile.

That’s literally it. It sounds simple, but unlike most of everything else I say, it actually is simple. It is genuinely the most effective thing I have ever done in my life. One day, you just have to wake up.

Metaphorically, I mean. You have to wake up, and you have to tell yourself that from now on, you are going to be happy. From now on, you are going to stop wishing and waiting about the person you would someday like to become, and you are going to be that person.

No more waiting to be happy. No more waiting for a time where your problems and pain are no longer there. Because chances are, you’ll be waiting your whole life.

Start now. I promise you, you’ll have never felt so free. It is a beautiful feeling. It is a feeling that is like no other, when your smile meets you eyes, and you laugh and people tell you that you look happy. And you don’t just say thank you, and plaster on a fake smile. You laugh and agree with them, because you actually feel happy. You can feel that warmth that you have longed to feel since you can remember.

You mouth aches from laughing and your cheeks are stiff because wherever you can, you smile.

You smile because there is a part of you that has let go. There is a part of you that understands now that the only way to be happy, is to make your own happiness.

Because no one is going to make happiness for you, apart from yourself. And then, something weird happens. Suddenly, you see happiness in the blue sky, you see happiness in the rain and in the clouds. You see happiness in children, and in flowers. You see happiness in the way you skip along the road and laugh with your friends.

You hear happiness in music as you sing along to the beat.

And you know what? There are still times when you are sad. There are still times when you are stressed, sad and angry.

But somehow the fact that you are also happy, and can free yourself from your problems and the rest of your life, is the best gift anyone ever got you, and the best part of that, is that it’s a gift you gave yourself.

As humans, we have a very special power. We have a power that enables us to feel. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget to feel the sunshine on your face, or the flowers in your hair. Don’t wait so long that you can’t remember what it feels like to be happy, or what is feels like to truly laugh.

It isn’t going to rid you of all pain, it isn’t going to solve the things you have been trying to solve. But it is going to brighten up that darkness.

And most of the time, all we need is a little bit of light to show us the way.

-LF, LR and MG