Your happiness, your responsibility  

By Khushi Sharma

“The purpose of our lives is to be happy,” said the Dalai Lama.

Why do we study so much? Why do we look for jobs? Why do we want money? Why do we want fame? Why do we want a loving life partner? Why do we want the life that we want?

With all these questions, I want you to think about the end result. The end result that we desire with the career, the money, the fame and the love in our life. The why behind everything that we want in our life. Happiness is the answer to everything. Happiness might mean something different for everybody reading this article so maybe that’s why we all want different things in life. Someone might think that chilling on a beach with their family without a single worry in life would give them a lot of happiness. So they would aspire to make millions in order to afford that. Maybe my idea of a happy life is to express myself in front of a large number of people and maybe that’s why I have written this article.

It is said that happiness is a choice and most importantly, it should be a constant in life. So in order to be happy, we can choose to be happy. Sometimes we all should ask ourselves about what actually makes us happy and why so. Knowing the why behind your happiness helps us in knowing ourselves better. What makes you happy? Is it spending time with your loved ones? Is it art? Is it a hobby of yours? Or is it reading, if you’re still reading this.  It is obviously very necessary to do certain things in life which might not make you happy. But it is also important to do things in your life which make you happy. These things might not put a lot of pressure on your pocket, relationships or your busy schedule. Like your favourite song that you listen to while getting ready for work, your daily chit chat with your best friend, a good workout, a good night’s sleep and all the simple joys of life.

Just like how we tend to put ourselves responsible for the happiness of other people, we forget how we, first and foremost, are responsible for our own happiness. Remember that you can’t pour from an empty jar. I would end this article with something my grandfather always says: “Sukhi raho, Swasth raho” , which means stay happy, stay healthy.