Happiness, from where it comes
What is happiness? What are the sources of happiness? Why is the demand for happiness so high? For humans, priorities are health and happiness, followed by other comforts and elevations in their fields. Of late, they certainly realise that they can’t get everything to match their choices.
People are wealthy but not happy. People are satisfied with their careers but find no peace at home. People add on luxuries but find deteriorating sleep. Such contradictions exist in almost all cultures, across all classes, and across the globe.
The more we try to retain happiness, it flies away, and we remain at the same base level of our lives. We all agree that we cannot cage happiness. It comes when we own a new house, but happiness fades away as the days pass. When we get admission to a reputed institution, we feel happy, but workload and an array of responsibilities take away our pleasures in a week or so.
Prima facie, we can say that days of happiness are few and days of tension are many. It is not so. We don’t know how to capture happiness and enjoy it a little longer. In fact, we fail to avoid even avoidable unpleasantness.
"The true secret of happiness lies in taking genuine interest in all the details of daily life.". William Morris.
Experts have classified happiness as hedonic and the other as eudaemonia.
In hedonics, we derive pleasure from simple actions like eating, meeting loved ones, hugging friends, walking in the gardens, and travelling by train. Of course, these are sources of temporary happiness, but it happens. It limits the spread of negativity in those moments.
Eudaemonia refers to a deeper sense of rendering services to the people at a smaller or larger level. It gives pleasure and satisfaction to someone from the inside. Aristotle believed that eudaemonia was the ultimate goal of human life.
Hedonic pleasures are always short-lived in the sense that the next desire is now pressing the individual to go for it. So, gaps emerge, and a feeling of inadequacy prevails.
We are always in the grip of our emotions and external forces. We miss many happy moments because we oscillate between the past and the future. We don’t know the power of now.
"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.". -------- Omar Khayyam
When our eyes are on results, we can’t enjoy the moments of preparation. While constructing a new building, all steps are sources of joy, but who will make us wise to be happy every day?
"The foolish man seeks happiness at a distance; the wise grows it under his feet." James Oppenheim. 
A farmer smiles, looking at his standing crops and forgetting his many grievances about living conditions. On a good harvest, farmers are more happy but immediately go for the next crop. A captain smiles, looking at the preparation, and does not keep his pleasure pending until winning. On winning, happiness rises to its peak and falls instantly as more challenges call. These are examples of the hedonic genre of happiness, but all are true and applicable in all conditions.
Believe that there is a long spread of happiness in a process, and happiness comes to an end once we get to the outcomes. We make preparations for a high-level gathering for a month. We must enjoy every day of that month, not just the day of gathering.
Happiness is surely connected to circumstances. Normally, men in their 80s view travelling as a task, while kids on the same journey make it merry and memorable.
We usually keep our happiness waiting until important desires in our lives, like sufficient money, foreign degrees, our next promotion, and spacious dwellings, are fulfilled. These are faulty thoughts that need to be modified urgently. Enjoy today, and let tomorrow come. Make preparations for what comes ahead.
Coming to the eudaemonia genre of happiness, the following saying says a lot:
"The secret of happiness is low expectations." Barry Schwartz
Of course, in many instances, high expectations with low preparations spoil the charms of life.
We can have both kinds of happiness when our ultimate aim is to make a meaningful living.
1. Happiness from our hard labour, achieving goals, winning medals, and increasing sources of income
2. Happiness from the inner self is deeply rooted and requires a lot of practise. It asks us to aim higher than ourselves, like making drinkable water available in remote places, providing education to deprived classes, and so on.
When we are at the seashore, we enjoy the waves. It is short-term, but we entertain. We hear the chirping of birds on roadside trees, and we feel happy. There are many moments of happiness every day, but the ghost of our duties keeps us away from these freely available natural gifts.
Happiness is a choice. Choose all kinds of happiness. This way or that way, days and months change, but more moments of happiness help to be physically, mentally, and emotionally strong.