Weekend Reflections: Finding Happiness

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When I came back from my short vacation, I realized a number of things that was wrong with my life starting with my happiness. Why was it that I felt so unhappy given the fact that my life was practically amazing? Why was it that I felt like everything was wrong when it in reality everything was going right? Where was my satisfaction with the life that I had worked so hard to build up on? Why do I feel the way that I do?

I spent nights rolling back and forth on my bed wondering all the "what if’s" and scaring myself into thinking that I could have been somebody. You know, somebody who is talented and famous. Someone who is actually good at what they want to be good at. Someone who people would acknowledge and respect. I wanted to be that somebody. I yearned for it. It was killing my self-esteem and most importantly it killed my happiness.

"In our privileged lives, we have absolutely nothing to complain about. We have no struggles at all, except for the ones we create for ourselves."

- Lily Nguyen of Bleed for Fashion

I could not have said it any better. We are absolutely privileged to live the life that we have. We are able to express how we feel freely, have access to the world wide web, eat food that we want to eat, and more importantly be able to live for another day. Our stress and worrying over minor problems are struggles that we impose onto ourselves. We cannot help but to feel the way that we do about it, either. It is a natural instinct to worry and feel stressed, but the suffering from it all is completely optional. You do not have to let those minor things cause suffering. You can fix it. Let me share with you how I am going to turn around my life with these little reminders.

Smile and laugh more. It costs you nothing, so why not give it a go?
Laugh more. It could not be more simpler than that. When you laugh more, you release all the tension that is in your body. Your smile is one of the most powerful physical motions that you can do. A smile can brighten anyone’s day. A smile can change someone’s life. Laugh more and enjoy life while you are doing it.

Go out more. Not everyone knows this about me, but I am quite the homebody. I was raised to be an extremely sheltered child because my parents were afraid of what could happen to me if I was too exposed to the world. At the age of 22, my parents still give me a curfew and still tell me where I can and cannot go. I do not blame them for doing that, but it definitely left me naive and unprepared for the world. When I feel stressed, I stop by a local batting cage to let out steam. Let me tell you now, I am no baseball or softball pro - I am far from it. But that feeling you get when you swing the bat and it actually meets with the ball drives your nerves wild. Go on a run, go kick boxing, visit the beach. Do what it takes to blow off steam and relieve you of your stress.


Love more. Too many times we have spent our time fearing about things that may or may not happen to the point where we forget that our negativity affects those around us. We actually do more harm being negative to others than we do to ourselves. I have been selfish more than a couple of times in my life and have taken my anger out on my friends, and I have felt extremely awful about it. They will always love you and forgive you, but there is no excuse to ever hurt them out of your selfishness and worries. Love conquers a lot of things - so do not be afraid to turn to your close friends, family members, or significant other for help when you are in need of it. They will always be there for you through thick and thin.


And most importantly, accept yourself. When you learn to accept yourself for who you are, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and for what you have been able to achieve for yourself, you will be extremely happy. No one in this world is perfect. No one on this planet ever achieved their dreams without having failed more than a couple of times. Even the greatest geniuses of our times dropped out of school and went on to become something more than what people thought they could have done. Do not let society tell you what you can and cannot do. Do not let people walk over you. Do not let words affect your productivity. At the end of the day, only you can make the decision as to where your life is headed and how you feel. Accept yourself for everything that you are and what you can be, and you will never feel unhappy ever again.