Happiness a Choice

Having been told that I have no interests in anything, I was browsing around reading through some magazines and came across an article that precisely talked about the title in question for today. The article went on about saying that ‘Happiness is a choice’ and that one can choose to be happy in any given situation. While I was reading this article, my attention not being held on any topic wandered to apply the same to people who are going through the horrible disaster in Haiti. People in Haiti who have lost their family members, their homes, their every thing that they had been working on or had, would they make this choice? What would the rationale behind this choice be – that they are alive? I can understand to a certain extent that when anyone gets out of an accident or an horrible situation, and then realize that they are alive, they would be happy but when they come to know that everything else is gone or taken away from them, how long would that happiness remain?


Happiness is a state of mind and a lot of that depends on what goes on in that mind. People can be happy even if they don’t have worldly materials but what they sure need is peace and trust that their loved ones are around for them. When that trust is broken or when you come to know how loved ones stabbed your back or that your loves are not there anymore, then one cannot make that choice. Abraham Lincoln has said “A person will be just about as happy as they make up their minds to be”. In this case, what are you going to feed your mind? Even though your trusted ones broke your trust, that everything is okay or maybe they did that for some good reason? Even when your loved ones are gone, that they are in some better place happy and that you don’t have to worry about them?


I am sure many have heard people say “Time heals” and in my earlier post on Haiti, I did mention about this phrase and I had told you all that I would bring it up later on. So here it is. Does time really heal anyone on any given situation? Take for instance, the same people in Haiti - the ones that have lost their loved ones. They don’t even have time to grieve their loss because they have to find a way to survive and find food and water for the living ones. Even after a couple of months or years later, would they be healed of this situation? Sure, they would have found a place to live in, job to work and feed themselves and some interests to work with (I am not in that list) and keep busy but that wound of losing their loved ones, will that be healed? I am sure some will say that it leaves a scar. But more than a scar, the wound is still there deep down. It is just scabbed with other worries like every day chores or another wound that is just around the corner in life.


People often have to make choices in their lives but making happiness a choice is an interesting concept. What if I am frustrated at a situation or frustrated with someone that I love and trust? I keep thinking about it to find a solution but I also do know that I am helpless to do anything about some situations. What can I do? According to what I read, I should not dwell on it once I have planned on how to deal with it. But most times, the problem is how to deal with it, what is the right course of action to deal with a situation. Once I have an answer to the situation, then it becomes easy to implement it but finding the right answer is the problem. While I know that I cannot control the circumstances, I hope that I can control my thoughts and make happiness my choice.