Happiness as a choice

^{Image by Steward Masweneng from Pixabay}

Does happiness depend more on ourselves than we believe? If we are the source of happiness, can we find a possible answer, or something that resembles a possible answer?

In the dictionary, “happiness” has this definition:

"(...) feminine noun

1. the quality or state of being happy; a state of complete satisfaction; satisfaction, contentment, well-being.

2. good fortune; luck.

3. good success; right decision, success.

4. best wishes for success; congratulations.

Origin ETIM(sXV) Latin felicĭtas,ātis “happiness, prosperity, joy, fortune”

^{Taken from: Oxford University Press- Copyright © 2025}

From the first definition, we have:

"(...) a state of happiness; a state of complete satisfaction; satisfaction, contentment, well-being (...)"

and can this state of happiness, this awareness and satisfaction really be found within us?

If this were not the case, if we were unable to find happiness within ourselves, we would be nothing more than organisms that merely respond to external or even internal stimuli, but in an organic way, and only as a response... There would be something that could trigger this feeling in us.

But we can take a new perspective, one that elevates us as thinking beings. We know that a storm cannot last forever. The rain will stop falling one day. The dark clouds will cease to cover the sky one day. The night will end. When we are in the middle of the night, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of loneliness, we cannot see the end... But we have hope, which comes from the certainty that at some point, the night, the storm and the loneliness give way to the day, the sun and company.

We must therefore try to look at these adversities as something that is normal. We should not see the night, the storm and the loneliness or pain as something that is undesirable, but as something that is natural, and that comes after a period of calm. It is the normal rhythm of things... Eternal happiness does not exist. At least, not in an idyllic form, and in this reality.

We can romanticise that one day we will achieve eternal happiness. But if happiness is the search, the path, how can having something good forever be the goal itself, the path itself?

It is a concept we have created. A convention that there is always something better beyond what we see. But we can be content and happy when we manage to find meaning, find a glimmer of light in the middle of a dark and cold night. Happiness also comes from a situation that apparently could bring nothing good, but makes us find a glimmer of hope... the certainty that things will get better.

And that path, that decision is ours. We have the ability to want to see beyond what is superficially visible. We decide to see beyond what is there. To see beyond what everyone else sees.

A better tomorrow... Or the hope of ‘a better tomorrow’!

^{Free image from Pixabay.com
Original text in Portuguese translated with DeepL.com (free version)}