The word “happiness” is enough to bring a smile to someone’s face. There is nothing unusual about that. But when we really stop and think about it, what is happiness?
Do we even know what happiness means? Or are we actually happy?
These questions have been circling around in my mind for the past few days. I don’t know exactly why, but I found myself wondering: Are we really happy? And if we are, what kind of happiness is it?
For the past few days, I have been paying a little more attention to myself. I noticed that I still laugh, but somehow, I seem to have forgotten how to smile in the way that comes naturally from within.
At first, I thought perhaps it was just me. But recently, I met a few people while working on something, and during an ordinary conversation, the topic somehow turned to happiness.
That conversation made me realise that perhaps it isn’t just me.
In today’s world, people seem to be moving further away from happiness while trying to find it.
Somewhere along the way, we have created our own definition of what happiness should look like.
We begin to believe that once we grow up and get a job, we will finally be happy.
If we are students, we believe that getting good grades will make us happy.
And if we achieve something that brings us money, recognition, or power, we begin to think that perhaps this is what happiness really is.
But is it?
Is happiness something we receive after achieving something?
Or is it a feeling that allows us to feel peaceful inside—to smile without needing a particular reason?
When I look at myself today, I sometimes think about how beautiful childhood was.
Back then, we didn’t need a great achievement to be happy. We didn’t have to wait for happiness to arrive.
A few moments with friends were enough.
Playing in the rain was enough.
Sitting without a care in the world and watching our favourite cartoon could be enough to make an ordinary day feel special.
I still remember how much fun Tom and Jerry used to be. Their endless little fights could keep us entertained for hours, and we wouldn’t even realise when morning had turned into evening.
I sometimes wish we could still experience happiness with that same carelessness.
I wish we didn’t have to wait for a success before allowing ourselves to be happy. I wish we didn’t need something else to give us a reason to smile.
And there is something else I often wonder about.
Somehow, we have started calling innocence childishness.
Why do we feel that we have to look at our age before allowing ourselves to be innocent?
Why can’t we laugh freely, behave playfully, or simply enjoy something without thinking that we are “too old” for it?
Perhaps a part of genuine happiness lies precisely in that innocence.
Why do we bring age into the middle of our happiness?
Why do we think that being carefree, doing something silly, or simply living a little like a child belongs only to childhood?
If we really think about it, genuine and beautiful happiness does not depend on all these things.
We have seen people who have money, power, recognition and success still struggle with depression and other emotional difficulties.
So perhaps waiting for a particular achievement before allowing ourselves to be happy is not the answer.
Perhaps placing all our happiness in one thing is not the answer either.
Because when our happiness becomes dependent on something outside us, what happens when that thing is no longer there?
Maybe this is what I have slowly begun to understand.
And perhaps that is why I am also trying to learn how to be happy with myself again.
To be happy, once again, with a little of the carelessness I had as a child.
To enjoy small moments without constantly worrying about what comes next.
And to stop depending on something else to give me permission to be happy.
Because perhaps happiness is not the name of some great achievement.
Perhaps it is that small smile that appears on our face without needing a reason.
Perhaps it is that carefree laughter that does not ask us to explain why we are laughing.
And perhaps…
a genuine smile is still hidden in the innocence we left behind somewhere along the way to becoming adults.