What Truly Is Happiness?

By Aastha Arya

Growing up, I thought what could be bought was happiness,

I was attracted to fancy dolls, expensive cars and ostentatious houses,

How I looked mattered more than how I felt

The pretentious world was consuming me alive,

I ran after the glitz and glamour, shoes and shimmer, noise and clamor

Never asked myself what according to me was happiness

I only followed the banal lines dictated to me!

Though I looked alright from outside, my soul was depleting

Almost pleading me to heal the wounds of all the unnecessary battles I fought,

Trying to make me realize that happiness is not an object that can be caught.

It can be found nowhere not in things, not in fame, not in money and especially not in people

Happiness is nowhere else but in the present moment!

For everything except this moment is uncertain, and beyond my control,

This urge of seeking happiness in the next moment and future

Gripped me with fear, anxiety and loneliness!

So caught up with the expectations of I would be, I failed to feel happiness right where it was

In the present moment!

Of all the time I wasted, I came upon a realization

If this is my story, then why should I let somebody else hold the pen

Why I am not writing the script of my life?

Why am I living the life of a thousand lives lived before me?

Being different is being honest, standing in the power of my truth

Why modesty is holding the cards today?

Honest people are ridiculed and lies are being extolled

Honoring the spineless, and criticizing the bold.

Advices are also projections, it doesn’t come from a place of intellect

It spills out of a broken pot of dismissed emotions and deeply felt pain

Take my advice, don’t give advices because you think you have been through the same situation.

Advice when you can proudly say that you tackled the situation well to share your wisdom with another.

Being liked by all will not make you happy,

As everyone glances at a precious light at a store

Because it gleams and the room shines

But it’s put out once it is out of use

It’s not liked for what it is but what it could do for others.

Do not be a usable thing that can be replaced

Be real and see who stays.

This is what is true happiness- living in the present moment, filtering out the voices of world and being who you really are and not pleasing others to fulfill your unmet emotional needs.

As I dropped the veil of what the world thought was happiness

In the sun of pervading probity, I soaked the rays of enlightenment and found imperturbable happiness!

By Aastha Arya