A curious phenomenon has taken place over the years. Technology has advanced in leaps, modern medicine has become far more effective, we can control pain and disease far better, mental health is getting due attention, there are more avenues for creativity and entertainment.
We are no longer able to be really happy. We are a chronically unhappy people. Forever dissatisfied, never content. Always thinking about the past or the future, never enjoying the moment.
Think about it. When was the last time you were really, truly, wholly happy? Blissful, joyful?
You slog hard at office, get that deserved raise/promotion, party hard to celebrate, and yet at the end of the day, a hollowness creeps in. An emptiness, a feeling of futility.
You have a grand wedding - its the stuff Instagram dreams are made of. Your sweetheart looks like a million bucks with the latest designer lehenga, you yourself are spruced up, your family and friends are beaming, the event is going on swimmingly. Yet, there is no real joy. Beyond the cameras and flashlights, you feel like running away from it all. You feel overwhelmed, like you made a huge mistake. Is this what it is, you ask yourself.
Your children are doing very well. They have made you proud. You share your pride with everyone, yet in your moments of solitude, you feel crushed, dejected, abandoned.
In a party or celebration, you have the sudden feeling of being all alone. Isolated, disconnected from everything. Suddenly, everything seems pointless.
A momentary slight or remark by someone close to you brings you close to tears. Misunderstandings cloud years of friendship. Relationships break on a whim or a missed appointment.
Why is this so? Are we becoming increasingly emotionally fragile? Are our minds becoming sadness magnets?
I have a theory. Maybe, we can't be happy because happiness is, after all, a shared emotion. And when people around us are in pain, in trouble, can we be immune to them? We are insulated by our privilege, but our subconscious can't shake off the guilt. As a species, we have lost the sense of community feeling, making us increasingly lonely. We can't empathize, yet we can't disassociate completely either.
So we resort to "othering" and think we are different. But, in our heart we know, we are the same.
In some part of the world, someone is starving to death, is in terrible pain, or getting blown up in a war zone. Someone can't move out of home without taking permission. Someone is dying from lack of medical attention. The powerless get abused, day after day.
The earth is changing - floods, wildfires, droughts, cloudbursts, landslides, tsunamis ravage entire regions. Entire places and races are getting wiped out from the face of the earth.
However much we try to convince ourselves, that those are not our problems, something tells us - "Its going to be you tomorrow!"
So, maybe its time to think beyond our own happiness. Maybe its time to do something to make the other happy? We share a home - our mother earth, so maybe we are the same after all?
#Happiness #MentalHealth #Contentment #PeaceOfMind #RealJoy #HappinessOfOthers
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