Happiness is a currency that everyone must try to acquire. In an increasingly difficult world, happiness seems to elude many persons. I watch in deep sadness children in IDP camps and immigration camps around the world and I am deeply affected by what they may be going through. I open a tap and it runs in my home, I get to see my children laughing and I wonder how young persons and children are faring at these places that are neither homes nor houses. Shanties, places of sorrow, places of loss and places of terror and unimaginable things. For girls it is rape or sex for food and for boys it is drugs, violence, brutality and yes, rape too.
How does a 12-year-old who has lost her parents cope with her seven-year-old brother? How do children who are trafficked and have become sex slaves’ deal with any form of happiness? Are they able to find a glimmer of happiness? What makes them smile? What does Leah Sharibu do for laughter? After years of captivity, I wonder what makes her smile. This week, I am pondering happiness and how circumstances of life can shut laughter away from the lives of many persons. But how? If we are lucky and not at war or captivity, we can build our own happiness wall.
But what about you? What have you done to increase your happiness quotient? Laughter is good for the soul. How often do you reward yourself with a good laugh? You and I know that a good laughter is healthy but can be difficult to achieve if stressed. We also all know that we often think we are happy but we are actually only obsessing with things that we think translate to happiness; the worship of cars, money, gold and clothes. For those who think these things translate to happiness, note that the more you have, the more you want, it’s never enough. Contentment is a happy state of mind. A walk in the garden. Window shopping. Time with family. A baby’s toothless smile. A good book, a good movie. A good sleep. Time out with good friends and you will never guess, dancing.
Happiness is a currency that everyone must try to acquire. In an increasingly difficult world, happiness seems to elude many persons
But some of the greatest happiness killers are meanness, betrayal, wickedness and ill-treating others. A mean spirited person only increases the toxicity around them. If you make people’s unhappiness your stock in trade, how can you be happy? If you spend all your life being abusive whether is of your children, your wife or your husband, you will end up a sour lemon. Spreading happiness is infectious and some of it is related to choosing a simple life and choosing to be happy irrespective of what life has thrown at you. It can be hard and I know we are humans and so sadness can creep up on us at any time but let’s remember that if we let it persist it becomes chronic unhappiness that can lead to depression. Trust me; depression is very hard to get rid of. You begin to feel despondent and even a blue bright sky looks dark and stormy.
I know many people who allow other people determine their happiness. Their children, their husband and family members. You must never let anyone hold the key to your happiness, no matter how much you love them. More often than not, once they know, they hold you to ransom. Even your own children. Tell yourself you are wonderfully and fearfully made, you are a unique individual and seek your own happiness because you deserve it. Give yourself a break. Send yourself flowers. Go on a holiday by yourself. Take yourself to dinner. Love yourself. Deliver happiness to your door this 2020.
Walk your dog every morning. Go for a walk. Visit a garden and please don’t rush off. Buy yourself a gift even if it’s worth only 500 naira. Allow strangers to smile at you and smile at strangers. If you are a man, open the door for a lady or hold the door at a mall. You do not have to know the lady. Visit a motherless babies home. Make the time. Cook for all your neighbours. Enjoy the chirping of the birds in the morning. Walk barefoot on a beach.
Remember your first puppy love and smile to yourself about how naïve you were and how your heart was always racing when you saw him or her. Go back to the first love letter you got. Share it with your friends and laugh out loud about how stupid it sounds now. Get a massage. Go to a spa. Save to go. It’s worth every dime. Don’t take yourself too seriously; open your heart to love again even if it was broken two years ago. Pray. Wake up early to have a conversation with God at the crack of dawn.
Be silly. Laugh at yourself. Get your happiness hat on.
It’s your life. While this is difficult to do, dream it, plan it and reward yourself. You deserve it. I wish you a truly happy year ahead.
