About the meaning of happiness

Certainly, we all have in mind what makes us happy, and perhaps we are working towards a steady direction in our lives towards that goal: happiness.

Nevertheless, today my husband shared with me a post about the world and the real meaning of happiness. The post was actually a page of the book of Matt Haig “Reasons to stay alive.”

Here is a quote from that book shared on Goodreads:

“THE WORLD is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more? How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturiser? You make someone worry about ageing. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind. To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.”

I agree one hundred percent with the statements above, each of them is spot on, but instead of the word “World” I would perhaps use the word “Society.”

The world is not doing anything against people, the world is there and watches us hurting each other, trying to prevail over each other. Society is what we have been building, and that is what makes us unhappy.

I have to say that if everybody were like me, the economy, as we know it, would just collapse, as I live for one simple thing, enjoying the nature and life, and those activities are all free (or almost).

Despite this, I think that most of the people really fall into the trap of what society is expecting from them or what they think it expects from them. With this, they are falsely brought to believe that buying one object, wearing a certain dress, owning a certain car, living in a certain area will make them accepted. The reality is that unless people do not love themselves, accept themselves and start living confidently with themselves, they won’t be loved, accepted, and trusted by anybody else.

I guess that the real secret lies in looking inside ourselves and get to know our inner nature, that little stranger that is inside us, to which we never really talked for long enough.

I admit it that perhaps I also talk too much with myself, and that little stranger is no stranger after all. A personal suggestion is just to live the way each of us wants and forget about what everyone else says. 

Do whatever you want, and never harm anyone.

With that in mind, what can possibly go wrong?