The Golden Key to Happiness

Happiness is like the very air we breathe. You know it's there.. but you are just too " unhappy " to feel it. I have watched how life forms inside a mother's womb, on Discovery channel, and the baby seems so peaceful in a state of pure bliss. I sometimes wonder if we are born into a sad world or if we are sad persons born into a happy world. Maybe, our planet is already in the state of the Biblical Eden and we just don't know it. Or perhaps, there's a veil of sadness in our very own DNA, like a strand of disease made especially for the human race.

I don't know the answer. Like most, I am in everyday search of happiness and the simple joys that life can offer. A moment of joy is like a bullet train, passing in front of you and you can feel its rush..then, gone in a few seconds. We often linger on those memories that made us happy like seeing a long lost friend, receiving an award, getting a raise and even the sweet, sensual kiss of a beloved.

To be happy..or to feel happy?

I guess the first one is a myth. As long as our lives are full of intricacies - of fears, worries, sadness and despair - I say we will never be truly happy. We are like catching a salmon with our bare hands, only to find it slipping away into the river bank. Our joys can never be defined in a general way, even if countless dictionaries tell you what happiness means. There's no magic potion or secret formula to success and I could just raise my eyebrows at people who promises to offer a personal salvation, in the name of money.

The key to your own personal happiness is just within yourself. No one could ever make it happen for you... and it's only you who could.

Every Saturday, I used to visit a local bookshop offering a wide variety of self-help books. It was like a craze. I had always been searching for this one book that can help me find the secrets of being truly happy with my life.. until one day, a passage had suddenly caught my eye: What do you really want out of life?

It was just a random flip of the pages and I found myself staring at a question. I paused. I never even read what the book was all about. It was like an amazing grace of guidance coming into me, like I was hit by a sudden burst of cosmic rays and my bodies breaking into goosebumps. It was so surreal.

I went home pondering on that question, thinking about it while I try to fall into the serenity of sleep. I asked myself a countless times why I feel so unhappy in the first place. I then viewed my life's ups and downs, images of my past flashing through my mind's eye. When I had triumphs, I felt joy and I felt despair when my dreams and expectations crashed. Was I expecting too much of life? Was I being too hard on myself?

Realization hit me so fast that tears were pouring down my eyes. I have wasted so much time trying to find my own redemption when the very secret I've been looking for is just inside myself. I came to realize that it is just all - ME.. and I have the power within to move my world, my life into the state of joy I had long craved for in my entire existence.

It all just started waking up each morning with a smile and a sense of peace with myself and the world around me. It is not an easy task to do but I am reconditioning myself to have a more positive outlook in life. This doesn't mean that I would be immune from all those trials that come my way, but life, would be more pleasurable the second time around.

" The secret...is you.. "