My Pursuit of Happiness

This is something I had to write for school, but thought it applied to my spreading happiness mission. If anyone happens to be a bit bored, maybe have a read? So, here is my take on the pursuit of happiness:

To address what makes me happy, I needed to first define what happiness is. Rather unhelpfully, the Oxford dictionary defines ‘happiness’ as the state of being happy. So, I thought about what happiness means to me personally. I believe it comes in many forms but essentially, it is a feeling of total contentment, when you are worrying about nothing else.

In my search for happiness, I came across two ideologies that resonated particularly with me: hyyge and ikigai:

Hygge is a Danish philosophy that appeared in the media circa 2016 when ‘The Little Book of Hygge’ by Meik Wiking (the CEO of The Happiness Research Institute in Denmark) was published. It is essentially about feeling safe and comfortable, letting your guard down and enjoying the simple things in life.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that translates as ‘a reason for being’. It encourages us to find the things in our life that are time fly past, when you are so involved in what you are doing that nothing else matters. Your ikigai tends to sit somewhere between what you love and what you are good at.

To be honest, at times you can’t help but feel that hygge is just the latest fad or trend that promise to solve all our issues as England confronts its current Scandinavian obsession. However, I feel that the important thing to take from it is how to find the beauty in the simple and fleeting moments, not orchestrating everything, letting it be spontaneous.

I have absolutely no issues with ikigai. Ikigai is not so much a livestyle, it is just a concept to keep in mind. Once you find the thing that you love and you also happen to be good at, your purpose in life, all you have to do is carry on doing it.

Fforest is the place that I believe my conscious pursuit of happiness began because once we returned from our first trip, I was already searching for a way to replicate the feelings and experiences I had had there. It is a camp site in Cardigan, Wales that was founded in 2005 and it backs on to the Teifi River and a beautiful nature reserve. It is this closeness to nature and awareness of the beauty surrounding you that creates the atmosphere that I love and crave from Fforest. The pace of life is so slow, you wake when the sun shines through your tent and wakes you and you sleep when it is too dark to see anymore or the flaming fire pit is no more than embers. Everything at the camp is also made from the resources that surround it. There is no pool, but the disused, flooded slate mine a 2 minute walk away provided that perfect, albeit freezing place for an early morning swim. Things are taken back to basics, very little is prefabricated, it is made on site, with wholesome and natural resources, by hand, by everyone.

I have also tried many hobbies in search for a sense of fulfilment and pride. Sewing, piano, pottery, skiing and lacrosse: all of these things gets you totally involved in what you are doing, you can’t afford to lose concentration for a second, you can’t worry about all the things you have to do, skiing and lacrosse also have the added benefit of releasing dopamines and endorphins (the feel-good brain chemicals).

I have also had to consider the problems with pursuing happiness constantly. Dukkha is one of the 4 noble truths of Buddhism that refers to the fundamental unsatisfactoriness of life. Suffering exists and it always will, therefore it is futile to constantly expect happiness. Another issue is measuring your happiness against others. Contentment can only come from within yourself and measuring your happiness against someone else’s could ultimately make you more miserable.

In conclusion, I have found that there are some things that will make most people happy, for example, gratitude, giving, laughing, avoiding regrets, exercise and having good relationships with family and friends. However, one of the most important things I have found is that my pursuit of happiness is my pursuit of happiness, what makes some one else happy will not definitely make me happy.

Finally, if someone asked me the ultimate way to be happy I would say, staying present and not focusing on your worries but at the same time, not fearing the bad times, because they will inevitably be there. It is the constant fluctuation of highs and lows that means highs seem much higher, the sad times provide contrast with the happy ones. As Dukkha teaches there is no light without shade.

Hope you enjoy!