Sounds like a funny questions, but have you ever considered why you want to be happy? Many of us might have a list or an idea in terms of what should happen, after which I will claim that yes I am happy. But, how many times are we really able to understand that why I want to be happy?
Do we take happiness as something that is opposite to sorrow or “unwanted pain”? Somewhere when I say I want to be happy, do I really mean that I don’t want to have any suffering? Alternatively, is it that I feel good about myself, I feel a positive energy. I can achieve what I want o achieve and enjoy the moments, hence I want to be happy?
What is your answer? Why you want to be happy? Well, I could not really come up with a good answer for this, but if I have to speculate, I might be inclined towards the second part. I feel good and positive when I am happy.
However, most of the time, we feel good when something happens as we predicted and expected to happen (of course, always resulting in something good in “our” view). Take, for example, you got a promotion, or your kid got an admission in a good school, or your loved ones achieved their goal. Isn’t all of it meant that something happened exactly the way you wanted it to be (unconsciously)? If that is true, then what happens after that moment is gone? How long are we really able to keep ourselves happy? Why is that we immediately plan (unconsciously) our next wish list, to achieve a small pocked of happiness?
Is this the reason that I am never happy for a long duration? Or I am not always happy? Is this a simple game of predicting our future? If we get it right as per “what we need”, we say we are happy? Sounds very uncomforting, but is it really true? May be somewhere in our unconscious mind?
Is it that I need money, power, success, knowledge so that I can do a better job in terms of controlling “the uncontrollable” future? Try to get the result what I wish and then continue with the game to find small pockets of happiness one after the other?
What if, we don’t have to look for the pockets and we don't play the game of expecting a desired future? What if, we change our process and focus on digging out all the happiness which is present in the “now”, will that keep me in a more positive and feeling happy mode?
Is it that what we have today, is also a result of something which we planned yesterday? Is it that we are always with happiness, just below the current moment, which is a result of something we did in the past? Is it that we are acting like a beggar sitting on a gold mine?
