Graphic by Noemi Gonzalez.Author Albert Camus said, “You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
Buzzfeed has numerous lists about what people should or shouldn't do. Our society constantly searches for a guide to life. We want an explanation for why we feel unfulfilled, lonely or inadequate.
We spend so much time searching that we forget to look at where we are. I used to yearn for the next great moment. I would be at a place, in the middle of a joke or resting in someone's arms and I'd feel detached because I was too busy wondering what would happen next instead of participating.
Life became a highlight reel when it should have been a full-length movie.
I was so busy looking for happiness that I missed the moments when it was there. The emotion frustrates me — it frustrates a lot of people.
Happiness is a choice. We choose whether we stop and appreciate our lives or not. It's our prerogative to seek people who accept us for who we are. It is our job to live in a moment and not just catalog what's happening.
You will never find happiness. It finds you. You must open your heart, and stop thinking so much.
Author Jonathan Safran Foer said, “I think and think and think; I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
You don't need a spectacle to make you smile. Something as simple as an extra chicken nugget can make someone happy. Don't worry about the next moment. Enjoy where you are. Accept your flaws and turn your mistakes into stories. Laugh freely. Don't think about people judging you, because who cares about their opinion anyway?
Author Stephen Chbosky said, “There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.”
Happiness is fleeting and impossible to maintain. Understand that with happiness comes sadness. Being happy all of the time isn't realistic. You have to learn to judge where that line is between moments of discontent and things that make you happy, and the discomfort of clinging to something that only brings you down.
Reach the blogger at Stephanie.Tate@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @StephanieITA
