My happiness My Business

"Happiness? That's nothing more than a good health and a poor memory.", as said by Albert Schweitzer

A very true and potent statement. you must realise it is most of the times the happenings of our past that haunt us. It is not that present is free of worries or for that matter, we have realised the futility of worrying about future,no. But past happenings have their good share in our miseries so poor memory will help us to get rid of that baggage at least.

So let us be little forgetful and choosy. Pack in your basket of memories with good thoughts and happy memories. Discard all those unhappy thoughts which will only add burden to your heart.

Another important ingredient for happiness as suggested by Albert is health. Health means self, so you see  both the ingredients are within your control, so your happiness is within your control. So let nothing stop you from being happy.

Am I There yet?

We are always running out of time to do things we want to do. We have endless number of excuses for not doing them in spite of the fact that we sincerely want to do them.
Who are we fooling?
We need to get strict with ourselves in order to achieve what we want to achieve to improve ourselves. It is our obligation to our inner self to take us to highest order of achievement in the field we have chosen for ourselves. The only and most important thing to mind is that we do not step on any bodies feet let alone head.
So let us stretch ourselves to extremes.

Sands of Time or Timelessness

Plato said ,"Practice Dying".
Some say,"Live Fullest".
Are these two sides of the same coin?

Yes!
To practice dying means we are assuming that there is no tomorrow so all what we are doing today needs to be in such a shape that somebody else can benefit from it tomorrow even if we are not around. This means we should make most of today. Now to make most of today does not mean to work endlessly. It means not to postpone things to tomorrow, especially those which can give pleasure to others and self.

The sands of time is slipping out of our hand every moment so each moment is important. We only realise the importance of these tiny moments when we are sitting at the red light and waiting it to be green. We are so restless in those few seconds and are so upset at the time lost, without ever realising the loss of those endless hours when we are busy thinking wistfully about our past or planning vehemently about our future. These hours are wasted as we are able to do nothing about the either, however hard we try.

Walk In to Walk Out

The French Mathematician, Blaise Pascal wrote,"All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone."

I feel ability to sit alone is not the biggest challenge, the bigger challenge is to be able to accept that in spite of so many known and unknown faces around you, you are technically alone in this world!

The acceptance of this loneliness with grace and not getting upset over it is the sign of maturity.As soonn as this acceptance comes in what Blaise suggests happens with out effort. Because to turn inwards towards your inner self will only happen when you shut the doors outside.

Now before you assume that we can only get into meditation state when we forsake the world, let me rephrase my suggestion. I feel we need to get into meditation mode first and the realisation of isolation in crowd will follow naturally. The more closer you will get to your inner self more with drawn you will be from the outer world. Again don't jump guns, when I say with drawn I mean you will have the strength to pass through pains and pleasures of daily life without an issue.

Poorly Rich

God has a unique sense of humor which is very visible in his creation, that is us.

I know of this interesting creature who has been bestowed with best of world's riches. He has all a person can ask for in terms of good life. He has the luxury of buying anything he puts his heart on. But then where is the twist in the tail?

The twist in the tale is another gift that God has given him. The gift of thriftiness.
And a very potent gift!
He cannot spend a penny without being sad about it. He even cannot spend on himself so spending on others is beyond question. On the other hand his father is a typical rich fellow who spends lavishly. This habit of his father is painful for this little fellow that he stoops to the level of removing some notes from the pile his father would keep as tip after a hearty lunch at five star.

I can give endless examples to prove his thriftiness but I am more keen to discuss the phenomenon behind this set up. It seems as if God was forced to give him this luxurious life style much against His wish, so to ensure that it is a win-win situation for God, He put this small thought of thriftiness inside this little fellow, so that in spite of all his riches he has no pleasure in spending that money. So in totality he is poorer than the poorest as even a poor fellow is able to extract pleasure by spending what ever meager he has.

Am I better off?

Nothing prevents happiness like the memory of happiness. - Andre Gide

Am I unhappy today because I am not as happy as I was in past. Isn't it a funny tongue twister sentence with no clear meaning.

But that is the fact of life. our past happiness always looms over our present happiness. In fact the past happiness prevents present happiness and cycle is continuous vicious circle.  We have this innate knack to relentlessly search in our past to find a situation at least when we were better off than present. 
And what does this discovery do?
Yes , it makes our present worst.
So learn to forget past, do not open compare chart every time you have something to rejoice and always be happy at every smallest chance that life gives you.

Accept or Revolt

Happiness can exist only in acceptance. As quoted by George Orwell.

Acceptance of what?
What is the level or degree of acceptance?
Is it right to accept always?

Yes most disturbing questions.
Is my happiness dependent on my acceptance of all imperfections of my life?
If so then how to decide how much should I accept?
And by accepting certain aspects of my life am I not paying a very big price for happiness?

Is this what is true happiness?
For once I have no answers but more questions.

My Happiness My Responsibility

Aristotle quoted,"Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient ".

I can only interpret this in one way, that my happiness is totally dependent on me. I am responsible for my smile and I can take full care of maintaining it. The only way this is possible is if I am always able to the sliver of light in the darkest of times. Tough but not impossible! And what makes it possible is the relentless faith of humanity in God that made humanity survive world wars and holocaust. 

Smile and Remember

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. by Dr. Seuss

I am overwhelmed by this statement. It is a total transition from what we tend to do normally. We are always sad when we recall good time, because we miss it. But we have never got down to our knees and thanked God for the wonderful memories we have because of the good time we had experienced.
These memories are not to sadden us but to provide us courage to pass through the tough time.
And they are also a constant reminder of the fact that this too shall pass.

There is no need to regret that the good time is no more around, because it was not supposed to happen that way. We cannot be in same phase of life always, either physically or mentally so how can rest of things hold same status, especially time which is most dynamic of all!

Live Life not just Survive

Paulo Coelho tweeted,"People who forgot to live are the ones who fear death."

To live is to explore and enjoy what ever that time throws into your face. When Krishna said do action without worrying about the result some part of that learning also fits here.
We are so scared of failure that we forget to live. We secretly admire all those who have taken up lesser walked path but for our selves we only take up the challenges that are thrown into our faces. We never indulge our selves to dream something different for ourselves, we stop ourselves from getting excited about anything big in life because of the fear of failure.
But what we tend to miss is that life is about living, it is about exploring because life is just a journey which can come abruptly to stop at any time so we need to make most of it.
So next time when you want to do something more in life do not stop yourself but instead support yourself, encourage yourself and have full faith that God Helps Those Who Help Themselves.
So go ahead and take a leap!