Happiness. What do you think it is?
A state of mind or something tangible like people and possessions. What is it
really?
I think happiness is the ultimate
goal of everything we do, our each and every endeavor. Achievements, success,
satisfaction, relief and peace, everything at the end of the day reduces to a
single point. The point being about happiness, don’t you think?
Every act that you and I carry
out is a means to that end, a continuum of happiness. Analyze the goals of any
individual and you’ll find happiness to be at the heart of it all.
The choices we make, eventually,
are the dynamics upon which depend the fate of our eternal melee for joy. And
these choices we must make with hope tussling through every
single cloud of fear. This we must do, no matter how difficult, for if
hopes were dupes, fears may be liars.
May your
choices reflect your hopes, not your fears – Nelson Mandela
So, say not the struggle naught
availeth especially when you have hope driving your choices. Remember
happiness is always around the corner, you and I need to learn to recognize it.
We need to have the heart to move with optimism no matter how difficult the
process and grab every single, enduring shred of it.
All that sounds fine but what am I
doing about it in my life? Surely, you must be curious. Am I just sermonizing or
am I willing to do something about it as well?
So, for a change I have decided to ignore
the toxic people in my life. Maybe even go so far as cutting them
off from my day to day activities. The so called friends and acquaintances
whose mere presence brings about nothing but negativity, I can surely do
without them. Those who, if truth be told, are not really a part of my life
anymore.
Out of courtesy, I often refrain
from speaking my mind when certain people talk about things that I don’t agree
with. I know they are wide off the mark or hold too high an opinion about
themselves but I just can’t find the right words to get them off their high
horses. I hate conflict and rather avoid it when I know my speaking something is
as good as talking to a wall.
Perhaps it’s the fear of an ugly
discussion that stops me. Then there are ‘friends’ with whom talking on the
phone is always a one sided commentary of how everyone else is a minion in
their grand scheme of things. The conceit and the false pride, I ignore all of
that out of civility of course. But somewhere it annoys me to the point of running
my mood as well. My happiness suffers in the process. Hence, after some careful
thought, thanks to the uninterrupted time I got at the hospital, I have decided
to slowly get rid of them from my life. A quite hi and hello at times perhaps,
that’s all.
It is a choice I make knowingly
with hope, without any fear because it is they who are lacking and
not me. Their presence doesn’t enhance my life or my mind in any way. And there’s
no point investing time in dead, unproductive relationships or in trying to show
them the mirror, if I may put it that way. I have decided to be over and done
with every connection that is selfish, fake and brings me nothing but a heartburn
possibly!
So, that’s what I intend to do
for my peace of mind and serenity.
What about you? Do you have toxic
relationships and acquaintances as well? If so, how do you deal with them? With
hope or fear? What is the choice that you make?
***
Join Janine
Ripper and Mackenzie
Glanville and some other wonderful bloggers like Corinne
Rodrigues for the #FridayReflections every week. Today’s prompts are:
• Write about your first job.
• Are you a winter, summer, autumn
(fall) or spring person?
• Reflect on why it’s important to express
gratitude and/or the difference it has made in your life.
• Reflect on the following quote:
May your choices reflect your hopes. Not your fears – Nelson Mandela