The Happyist

If happyism has taught us anything, it’s that happiness is not just something you one day ‘reach’ and you’re there. You can only experience contentment for something that is happening to you. This means that it is not something you feel for something in the future or the past. A memory can bring a feeling of joy- but it’s the narrative of that experience you’re happy about and not the experience itself. Equally, feeling happy about something in the future is a feeling based on your perception of what that will be.

There once was a woman who had two daughters. The daughters grew up in love; always in awe of their mother who seemed to live in complete contentment. They would ask their mother how she did this and she told them to be patient. They spent years seeking out happiness and contentment through various means. One daughter focused on striving to be wealthy and successful, believing it was a sense of achievement that would bring her true contentment. The other daughter, viewing this as somewhat inhuman, strived to find contentment in love and relationships with others, believing that only people could bring happiness. As the years went on, both daughters always felt a sense of dissatisfaction; the first always looking to the next step on the ladder and the other becoming deeply dejected and self critical as relationships broke down.

As the elderly woman lay on her death bed with her two daughters watching over her, they asked her to finally share with them how they could find the contentment she seemed to have her entire life. The mother answered that they had reached contentment years ago, but they could not see it as they were always looking somewhere else.