I read a short article from a very wise friend about Happiness and I was totally inspired with his clarity on what happiness is all about. Happiness is actually a very surface level of satisfying human desire in wanting. It required external factors to interact with our emotions, and our feelings of expression towards this wanted desire is so called "Happiness", if the desire is being fulfilled.
This desire could be set within our own high or low expectations. The higher expectation the more challenges it will be to find happiness. But that does not mean we are not able to achieve it, it may just require more efforts and energies. The word "challenge" means a person becomes a risk taker and being one, he has to accept the possibility of loss and not getting what he desire and "that" may ended up with being "unhappy".
In our younger days, we were taught to work hard and set a higher goal in order to improve ourselves, not to say, having to satisfy some social expectations. When this goal that we wanted so much have been achieved, we feel happy. This reminded me when I received my first recognition awards from an art competition, I was extremely happy. It was very encouraging and boost my ego, and so, I was tempted to join their monthly competitions in order to receive some awards which indeed I did, recognition awards plus a merit awards, month after month. Receiving the first award already brought me to cloud nine, so shouldn't more awards make me even happier, I should be in heaven by then...
However, I noticed my happiness level actually dropped. I was painting for the sake of joining a competition and that was not my original reason for painting. I was just being carried away by my own ego and greed.
I learnt in this process, the consequence of greed, and the effect of happiness. I asked myself over and over again, am I truly seeking for happiness. Off course, everyone is looking for that so am I because I wanted to be included in the norm, but....
If happiness have to rely so much on some external factors which may incorporate with many unforeseeable influences then how can I be grounded. So I realized, it wasn't the word "happiness" I was seeking. It is the word "grounded" and that brings me to "Bliss".
Bliss is very natural and very deep. I believe each of us have "bliss" within us if only we want to find it. To me, it is a soul expression of peacefulness and a self love that we were borne with. It is a feeling like being inside the womb of a mother, noticing external voices, movement and noises yet not being influenced, due to the protection within the womb and that brings, a feeling of security, warmth and perhaps joy.
When the inner self have the sense of self security, warmth and peacefulness without being influenced by any external factors and such feelings is so powerful that they bring the strengths within us, to me it is Bliss.
Amante