According to Wikipedia, Happiness is a mental or emotional state, including positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Can happiness be the same for all? Let me phrase it differently, can everyone find happiness in the same way?
When I was a kid, I often got scolded for picking up things that piqued my interests. I was so curious about the working of toys and instruments likewise, so it broke it down to see what was inside. It isn't like they are alive like us, right. That thought of what made them mobile and how made me want to break them apart, but only once they are worn out. Though I never broke new toys, my parents were extra careful by asking me to distance from them and scolded me when I touched them. Maybe that behaviour made me think that things would break with my touch as if I was cursed, making me conscious and cautious while handling stuff. That resulted in the slow death of curiosity, leading to the newfound interest in creating on my own by origami, stitching, Chinese knotting, drawing and such. Even if I broke them, it wasn't an issue since I was the one who made it. My interest in them grew with more time I spent on them.
Though my parents knew that I cherished what I did, they were busy convincing me that I would grow bored of it in future. They said it could never make me happy, and they even proposed the choices I should make which could theoretically make me happy. I still don't understand what makes them so sure that it could make me happy.
Let's go back to what we discussed earlier; what makes you happy? Is the answer to this question universal? Do you think so?
For a kid, having to eat their favourite food or just hearing its name is enough to make them happy. For a lover, receiving a rose as a token of love might make them happy. For other kids, having their friends celebrate their birthday might make them happy. Or maybe it is a trip, or something as simple as a flower or a butterfly. There can be something else that I couldn't even consider. But how could someone say with confidence that this is the only thing that can make you happy and nothing else? Aren't we the master of our minds? Shouldn't we know the best about ourselves?
Find your happiness without someone's help because they do not understand us, and they never will.
