What truly makes you happy?

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Abstract

happy and comfortable with my lifestyle at home — I loved getting to make breakfast in our kitchen and enjoying warm sunlight coming through, going on walks through trails and seeing bunnies, having a little room with big windows to look through while I play my guitar, and being able to enjoy my own company in my own room.All of those things had obviously changed when I got to college. For starters, my dorm room doesn’t get any direct sunlight so it’s always dark, I had to leave my guitar at home, I don’t have a kitchen and the food I eat now starkly contrasts the food I used to eat before I got to college.In the beginning, right before I moved, I remember I thought to myself that in four years, I’ll have a nice place of my own that’s close to home and I’ll live the lifestyle that I always liked. At the time, I was almost telling myself that if I wait long enough, I could have that happiness again. But little did I realize that I didn’t necessarily need those things to truly feel happy and content.When people say “it’s always the little things in life that tend to bring the most joy”, they certainly did not lie. Over the course of just a week, I got seemingly very comfortable with my life and now it’s been six weeks already. I suppose that’s the thing. Change is uncomfortable but our minds have ways of adapting to change perhaps on a subconscious level as well.I didn’t think it was possible for me to not feel homesick and to be honest, I expected myself to cry for the first three weeks because I’m usually not very receptive to change. But I had really surprised myself for the first time in my life. It

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astonished me how I didn’t feel the slightest bit lonely despite being over 600 miles away from my parents.What I realized not too long ago was that with this change, my expectations for things that made me happy also changed. I realized this on one Saturday morning when I woke up and made breakfast while looking out through our window. Despite facing the north, we had a nice view of green playing fields and I usually get to see the sky change colors during sunrise and sunset. My desk and bed is adjacent to the window so despite the other half of the room being dark, I’m sitting in whatever little sunlight we get for the most part. I soon realized that it made me happy. I loved waking up every morning and sitting at my desk and journalling while eating oats. I never thought I would ever enjoy oats for breakfast but here I am writing about how it makes me happy.It really has been all the little things — walking to the dining hall in the evening while the sun is setting, seeing other students walking around, and finally being at college (since my freshman year was fully online). Learning new things about myself with every new experience has certainly showed me that I’m fully capable of being happy without any of those things that I previously thought I needed. And maybe it’s the same for all of us.Six weeks isn’t an awful lot of time but strangely it was long enough to realize that life is too short to keep chasing an idea of happiness and waiting for some moment to bring us happiness. Instead, we can simply be happy and derive true happiness from all the little things on our most mundane and ordinary days.</article></body>

What Truly Makes You Happy?

Do you ever ask yourself, what truly makes you happy? Or perhaps, when did you feel happy and content? On any other day, my mind would go to far fetched dreams and ideas of how I would be happy when I reach a certain goal or imagine myself living a certain life in say, a city I’ve always wanted to live in. It’s so easy to get caught up in that idea that I’m always waiting for some miracle to change my life so I could be happy. I end up chasing an idea of what happiness would look like instead of actually being happy.

Maybe that’s where some of us go wrong.

Now I don’t mean that we shouldn’t be happy when we finally achieve those goals or reach those moments we’ve dreamed about. Those too, bring happiness. However, what I realized was that I needed to stop chasing those moments. I get so busy in trying to sculpt my life to what I think it should look like that I forget to enjoy life in the moment as it is.

It took me a while to realize that I don’t need to be at that certain point in my life to truly feel happy. Surprisingly, stepping out of my comfort lifestyle showed me that more than anything.

I have lived at home with my parents for my entire life so going to college seemed like such a terrifying thing. I looked forward to it, of course, but I was also very nervous about living so far away from home on my own. Most days, I felt happy and comfortable with my lifestyle at home — I loved getting to make breakfast in our kitchen and enjoying warm sunlight coming through, going on walks through trails and seeing bunnies, having a little room with big windows to look through while I play my guitar, and being able to enjoy my own company in my own room.

All of those things had obviously changed when I got to college. For starters, my dorm room doesn’t get any direct sunlight so it’s always dark, I had to leave my guitar at home, I don’t have a kitchen and the food I eat now starkly contrasts the food I used to eat before I got to college.

In the beginning, right before I moved, I remember I thought to myself that in four years, I’ll have a nice place of my own that’s close to home and I’ll live the lifestyle that I always liked. At the time, I was almost telling myself that if I wait long enough, I could have that happiness again. But little did I realize that I didn’t necessarily need those things to truly feel happy and content.

When people say “it’s always the little things in life that tend to bring the most joy”, they certainly did not lie. Over the course of just a week, I got seemingly very comfortable with my life and now it’s been six weeks already. I suppose that’s the thing. Change is uncomfortable but our minds have ways of adapting to change perhaps on a subconscious level as well.

I didn’t think it was possible for me to not feel homesick and to be honest, I expected myself to cry for the first three weeks because I’m usually not very receptive to change. But I had really surprised myself for the first time in my life. It astonished me how I didn’t feel the slightest bit lonely despite being over 600 miles away from my parents.

What I realized not too long ago was that with this change, my expectations for things that made me happy also changed. I realized this on one Saturday morning when I woke up and made breakfast while looking out through our window. Despite facing the north, we had a nice view of green playing fields and I usually get to see the sky change colors during sunrise and sunset. My desk and bed is adjacent to the window so despite the other half of the room being dark, I’m sitting in whatever little sunlight we get for the most part. I soon realized that it made me happy. I loved waking up every morning and sitting at my desk and journalling while eating oats. I never thought I would ever enjoy oats for breakfast but here I am writing about how it makes me happy.

It really has been all the little things — walking to the dining hall in the evening while the sun is setting, seeing other students walking around, and finally being at college (since my freshman year was fully online). Learning new things about myself with every new experience has certainly showed me that I’m fully capable of being happy without any of those things that I previously thought I needed. And maybe it’s the same for all of us.

Six weeks isn’t an awful lot of time but strangely it was long enough to realize that life is too short to keep chasing an idea of happiness and waiting for some moment to bring us happiness. Instead, we can simply be happy and derive true happiness from all the little things on our most mundane and ordinary days.