There was an interesting article on Midweek magazine about the recent visit of the Dalai Lama to Hawai'i. He was spreading the message of peace and happiness. “We are social animals. For an individual to live a happy life - this I believe is the point of life - and even our individual existence, it depends very much on other people,” he said.
So what does happiness really look like? One of the most famous phrases in the US Declaration of Independence is "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Of these three unalienable rights, the pursuit of happiness is probably the most alien to us. Oh we definitely know how to pursue careers, relationships, and material things. These make us happy right?
Only for a little while because I hear so many stories of people changing careers because they're not happy. Or even walking away from lifelong relationships because it brought more heartache than happiness into their lives. And I definitely know that I would not be happy if I'm still using my first computer which only had a floppy drive, 486 processor, and Windows 95 operating system. (For those of you who don't know what these are, Google computer in the dark ages, hahaha)
So I want to pose a question to you, what does it really mean to be happy? Can you pursue happiness? Looking forward to reading your replies and will probably use some to start a series of blogs on the Pursuit of HAPPYness.
