The Pursuit of Happiness

Published on 28 Mar 2019 ⸱ 3 min read ⸱ 27 views

Day after day, we're all bogged down by the time taken by daily chores, work, family, friends and a whole bunch of things. Some days we're caught up with tons of work, other days house chores. If we've successfully navigated that, we've got to manage the balancing act of family obligations and social obligations. There's very little time for oneself - to pause and reflect.

As if that isn't enough, the daily problems that come with each of the above is another task to deal with. Deadlines at work, remembering family and friends' birthdays, cooking, cleaning, taking care of parents - you name it, there's something important that one's forgotten but they're too tired to get it done. So it gets pushed.

Top this with dealing with negativity all around - politics, state of the nation, quality of life, terrible commute, weather, gossipy colleagues, people's irritating behaviour. You name it. We have a lot to complain about. Then comes the big daddy of all problems in our lives - social media. Those pesky apps that makes one feel less about oneself, makes one need validation from online users that really don't care about them. Social media is designed to make one keep scrolling like a bottomless cup of one's favourite drink. Social media is designed to amplify our fears, make us rage against one another, throw us in a downward spiral where it gets tough to come out of.

All of this sounds mighty depressing. And it is. In the isolated lives that we lead today, it's becoming increasingly easy to become cynical, to become pessimistic, to forget how to smile, to forget how to make others smile. It's too easy. Think about it. We are not leading the best quality lives we could. At least, I'm not. It's not easy to appreciate the little things around us as we're too busy existing.

In times like this, I guess it's important to identify the few things that makes one happy. I know, I know, it's too cheesy and cliche'd. But it's true. Make a list of the few things that makes one happy and just do it. Just. Do. It.

I'll start. The few things that make me happy: listening to my music, eating a crazy meal, learning something new, engaging in a productive discussion with someone 1:1, playing around with tons of data, being challenged, working out (currently kick boxing), walking.

All this sounds quite doable and it is. More so, it sounds like something I can do everyday. Which is also true. But what it lacks is mindfullness. When I am truly mindful while doing the things that make me happy, I feel great.

To being more mindful while doing the things that makes one happy!

Onward.

Note: All blogs posts till 2022 were migrated to this platform (react+next+tailwind). While all efforts were made to migrate wihtout any loss, the migration lost some images and broke a bunch of links in old posts. If you spot anything amiss, please notify me?