Happiness: A Flawed Concept?

As A Kid, As A Strolling Twig.

Never it occurred to me when I was a boy just strolling with ambitions on the face with a deeming smile I always carried as a kid. Never it occurred to me that one day I’d need reasons, not just reasons but the true justification to feel what I felt back then.

As a kid, I never really tried to understand myself because I didn’t need to. As a kid, I never really tried to understand other people too because there wasn’t a reason to do so, my needs were being fulfilled as if I had any. I was busy being just what I was, I was carefree at first but also unaware of what’s to come?

I never really gave a thought back then that this period of joy, contentment, gratification would end. One day that this would be the last time I would ever feel the innocence of a little kid, just strolling through life, as It didn’t matter that strolling meant anything.

Back then I didn’t need a purpose to breathe my next breath, Back then I didn’t need a reason, to stay afloat. To be always filled with joy, To be happy. I to be honest miss that self a lot these days, I wasn’t a rebellious kid but I was happy and fulfilled without ever knowing those concepts. Without ever realizing that one day I’d look back with an expression that was not happiness but Mystery.

Now, As A Teenager Entering With Defined Roots.

A lot of things have changed, I have grown taller, Grown furrier, And just adapted more of the world, And society In general. I wouldn’t say I have grown to be an intellectual prodigy like my parents hoped or more knowledgeable than I was back then. I’d be a fool to say that, but I have grown more scared to look within myself, I have grown from the perspective of society, I have grown the way they always wanted me to groom.

These days, I don’t feel that constant happiness or rather anything at all. To be honest, I despise any kind of emotion other than the neutrality of feelings, feeling almost like nothing. Feeling neutral is like standing in the middle of the ocean where there is literally nothing to the beyond you can ever look at Or you can ever see, Just plain water with no con-current waves.

It’s a state I admire these days, As it provides me with being not biased. Not One-sided, Most of the time.

But being a teenager I’d say is not an easy job. Most days you’re feeling like an insect, an Insignificant being to the point that it depresses you, and other days you feel that constant state of confusion, that ever-growing linear emotion of that you have lost the track of life.

Somedays I’d just wake up with no or zero motivation to do even anything but sit and think. Somedays, I feel insignificant as an insect might feel to a human being if it ever had that abstract reasoning in the first place to judge that way.

But yeah there are days, When you just look at yourself, your family, or the pen you have been holding for a while and simply realizes how grateful you’re to be alive at this moment, to be breathing at the moment. That “WOW” moment that just shakes you out of your imagination, the solid reality you feel and somehow It makes you grateful about your existence, And for that instant moment, you find yourself in a state where you’re not just content but satisfied with life. You’re simply happy to the core of yourself.

What Happened Along The Way?, Were The Roots Not Nurtured Enough?

So, Where did I lose my constant state of simply being happy? Why as experienced monkeys we cannot feel happy all the time? Why we as a dominant being on this blue yet pale dot seem to struggle with such simple concepts like happiness and purpose? WHY?

I can see a few statements, and opinions popping up in my head. Like the straightforward answers, one might give. Expectations, Awareness, And the chase of superiority. But meh! Those, there has to be something far underneath all these, something so deep within us that connects us to the realm of such mystery.

But In the menial time, until I am not able to reason the true abstract nature of happiness, I have come to define happiness as a flawed yet broken concept that we in the living sense has deteriorated to the extreme extent in this so-called “Modern Age”. We have come to define happiness as a concept to chase. A concept, that one has to chase to experience. Not the other way around.

We have come to define happiness as a non-abundant emotion that should be only felt few moments at a time, But not every moment.

And it’s I would say not our fault entirely, It’s how society was designed, It’s how capitalism is designed to keep us motivated to play this game of life and its meaninglessness

We have come to terms with the concept of happiness as a true ritual to chase, not to, At the moment just experience.

As an example, from an early age, we have been taught to study hard, So We can get into a good college and in return, we can get a good job and that will get us a good partner supposedly. And if we were to do all that, In the steps, we have been described. We will live a life of stability, true content, and a notorious way of being satisfied. We have been taught as the next generation to chase all that and then feel happy.

No, I am not saying that all that jazz notions are trash, they’re as important as anything you could think. Career is important to find meaning and respect in the society, Love is important to feel significant and cared and Money is important to literally live with expectations and desire. One can’t go all nuts, Can they?

They’re as important as anything could go, But In the midst of all this, We have come to accept that to feel happy and content. One has to chase things, one has to just live in misery at the present so that one they could experience what they felt when they were a child at best, strolling around your house feeling nothing but a simple share of constant satisfaction and joy.

Why We Can Never Leave This Hell, So Then Should We Cut The Tree Itself Huh?

And well I’ll be honest, The way our society is designed and the way we have been grown and groomed and influenced. I certainly don’t think we can ever truly become the kid we once used to be, Even the great philosopher of the Greek “Diogenes”, accepted this hell and lived a life of cynic to some extreme extent we can’t even begin to imagine in this era of distractions and ambitions.

You truly can never really get out the society, How much you ever try. Even the best were not able to recede and conquer. Only death can break this system of true willingness and awareness of our ego’s

And No, I certainly am not saying. I am the enlightened one Or I am starting the next cult of religion. I am just like you, Just an average Indian teenager who’s been lucky enough to be bought up in a privileged enough household to even understand such concepts, You can say I am lucky to be even writing this without a second thought on how I’ll strive to survive tomorrow.

I am also to some extent doing the same, chasing the happiness, chasing the so-called dream we have been addressed as a dream. So-called ambitions.

So That’s It, We Accept It’s Existence And Grow Out Of It?

Somedays, I regret my existence as all teenagers do, And somedays I just wanna live a bit more. Just a bit to see what the future has stored in for me, And what lies behind such a capitalistic world, Such a philosophical world with rather challenging views and concepts.

These days, I am thinking a lot about society, About ethics and morals, And why they’re set up that way. And about my existence.

I certainly don’t think so I will ever come to face the feeling of worthlessness, head on head. As it is only the thing that drives us.

But I don’t think that happiness is flawed or even a broken concept. It is one of the purest drops of the elixir dropped from the withering unknown, Happiness is one concept that we as an individual have derived most of the kindness, joy, satisfaction, and innocence we see in the current society.

And I certainly don’t think that we should just leave such a novel and a gratifying experience at the door. But stop thinking of happiness as a relevant concept for our own gains, agendas, and moral beliefs.

One is given the choice to react to a situation and a circumstance, And life has always. Every second of our existence has given us the option to either be happy or not. And it would be surely a foolish decision to not be happy. To not align ourselves with joy and content.

And that is the choice you get today, Stray the path with one of the most genuine emotions as a human being you can cherish and experience OR with an emotion that you’ll regret in the latter part of your life.