What is wrong with being happy?
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That is the famous phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. These three things are considered unalienable rights given to all human beings by their creator and which governments are created to protect.
Happiness. Common sense says that we all want it, but do we really? The blue print for the pursuit of happiness is simple. Accumulate moments of positive emotion. Don't wait for these moments to seek you. You can seek and create these moments of positive emotion yourself. Common sense, but not common practice. It makes me think we really don't want to be happy.
I recently got my hair done. My hair is quite high maintenance. Colour, high-lights, low-lights, toner, cut, and style. I'm there for a good three hours. I noticed a young beautiful woman literally flitting around the salon. I can't describe anything about her face, but I know she is beautiful. She is beautiful because she absolute radiates joy.
While my stylist was mixing my colour, the young woman noticed that my coffee cup was empty and offered to refill it for me. Well, I am certainly not going to turn down coffee. She brought coffee carefully and I thanked her. She proceeded to thank me for letting her do something for me. She talked about how much she loved helping and helping was the favorite thing in the world to do. She was just happy. Her smile made me smile.
For the rest of my time in the salon, she went along aggressively seeking opportunities to help and just saying random things that she liked. The whole salon learned that she liked the sound of coins in a person's pocket while they walked. She liked sitting in a mall just watching people. She loved to sweep so that she could see something tangible for their efforts. Her smile was permanently on her face.
It was a little odd and every time she made a random observation of happiness, the stylists rolled their eyes in unison. I found her delightful, but I couldn't imagine working with her eight hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure I would be like the stylists and find her annoying. An older lady whispered to her stylist, "what is wrong with her?" The stylist replied that she was challenged and on a work experience program. The older lady was comforted.
I found it very tragic. We say that we are all in the pursuit of happiness, yet when confronted with happiness, we find it strange. Here was a young lady who had truly achieved happiness. We all should have taken the opportunity to learn from her. Yet, we couldn't believe it. It had to be explained.
As a society, we equate happiness with the type of car we drive, the job that we have, the achievements of our children, how big our house is, etc. Very often we equate money and status with happiness. We all say that money can't buy happiness, but our actions and our societal norms seem to contradict this.
Only one person in the salon that day could believe that this young woman without money nor status could be happy. The one person that believed it was this remarkable young lady. She really didn't care about what we thought. She was just happy.
As my hair was being cut, she was sweeping up each strand as fast as my stylist could cut it and had that amazing smile on her face. I began to believe. There was nothing wrong with woman, she was just happy.
While my blow dry was being finished, she came over to me and said her shift was over but she really enjoyed meeting me and I made her happy. What an enormous compliment !!
When I paid, I indicated that I wanted to tip the young lady $5. The receptionist asked if I wanted to give it in person as she was still there waiting for her mom to pick her up. She came out and I gave her the tip. Her eyes got bigger than her smile. She hugged me and then started crying. She hugged me again, and then became inconsolable with tears of joy.
I got in my car and I became overcome with tears. I cried for a long time. I had a lot of regrets. I regretted all the moments that I could have been happy but chose not to because I was afraid to be judged. I regretted all the moments when I could have made someone else happy and chose not to. It turns out it is really easy to make someone happy. I also felt really guilty. I was trying to make this woman happy, yet, I got more happiness back in return. It turns out you get what you give.
Common sense not common practice. It is hard to believe, but there really is nothing wrong with being happy.
#commonsenserevolution
#yougetwhatyougive
Happiness. Common sense says that we all want it, but do we really? The blue print for the pursuit of happiness is simple. Accumulate moments of positive emotion. Don't wait for these moments to seek you. You can seek and create these moments of positive emotion yourself. Common sense, but not common practice. It makes me think we really don't want to be happy.
I recently got my hair done. My hair is quite high maintenance. Colour, high-lights, low-lights, toner, cut, and style. I'm there for a good three hours. I noticed a young beautiful woman literally flitting around the salon. I can't describe anything about her face, but I know she is beautiful. She is beautiful because she absolute radiates joy.
While my stylist was mixing my colour, the young woman noticed that my coffee cup was empty and offered to refill it for me. Well, I am certainly not going to turn down coffee. She brought coffee carefully and I thanked her. She proceeded to thank me for letting her do something for me. She talked about how much she loved helping and helping was the favorite thing in the world to do. She was just happy. Her smile made me smile.
For the rest of my time in the salon, she went along aggressively seeking opportunities to help and just saying random things that she liked. The whole salon learned that she liked the sound of coins in a person's pocket while they walked. She liked sitting in a mall just watching people. She loved to sweep so that she could see something tangible for their efforts. Her smile was permanently on her face.
It was a little odd and every time she made a random observation of happiness, the stylists rolled their eyes in unison. I found her delightful, but I couldn't imagine working with her eight hours a day 5 days a week. I'm sure I would be like the stylists and find her annoying. An older lady whispered to her stylist, "what is wrong with her?" The stylist replied that she was challenged and on a work experience program. The older lady was comforted.
I found it very tragic. We say that we are all in the pursuit of happiness, yet when confronted with happiness, we find it strange. Here was a young lady who had truly achieved happiness. We all should have taken the opportunity to learn from her. Yet, we couldn't believe it. It had to be explained.
As a society, we equate happiness with the type of car we drive, the job that we have, the achievements of our children, how big our house is, etc. Very often we equate money and status with happiness. We all say that money can't buy happiness, but our actions and our societal norms seem to contradict this.
Only one person in the salon that day could believe that this young woman without money nor status could be happy. The one person that believed it was this remarkable young lady. She really didn't care about what we thought. She was just happy.
As my hair was being cut, she was sweeping up each strand as fast as my stylist could cut it and had that amazing smile on her face. I began to believe. There was nothing wrong with woman, she was just happy.
While my blow dry was being finished, she came over to me and said her shift was over but she really enjoyed meeting me and I made her happy. What an enormous compliment !!
When I paid, I indicated that I wanted to tip the young lady $5. The receptionist asked if I wanted to give it in person as she was still there waiting for her mom to pick her up. She came out and I gave her the tip. Her eyes got bigger than her smile. She hugged me and then started crying. She hugged me again, and then became inconsolable with tears of joy.
I got in my car and I became overcome with tears. I cried for a long time. I had a lot of regrets. I regretted all the moments that I could have been happy but chose not to because I was afraid to be judged. I regretted all the moments when I could have made someone else happy and chose not to. It turns out it is really easy to make someone happy. I also felt really guilty. I was trying to make this woman happy, yet, I got more happiness back in return. It turns out you get what you give.
Common sense not common practice. It is hard to believe, but there really is nothing wrong with being happy.
#commonsenserevolution
#yougetwhatyougive
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