“Happiness is a choice, and a very difficult one,” a phrase that I repeat every day. For a very long time, I didn’t understand how to maintain the feeling of happiness, and that would, in turn, worsen my mood. This continued for a long stretch of time, until I took the time to take a step back and think about what happiness is, and most importantly, what happiness means to me.  

The Pursuit of Happiness

No, not the film, the genuine pursuit of happiness and it is really a pursuit. What I found that I was doing wrong was that I was expecting happiness just to just happen. Happiness, just like anything else, requires action and is useless based on thought alone. It really is a pursuit, there has to be constant action, a literal pursuit.  Believe it or not, it’s much easier to be sad than happy. It takes a lot of effort to be happy, but the rewards so greatly outweigh the cost, that once you figure out how best to run your race, you’ll fall in love with the process. 

Prioritising

The biggest obstacle that I found when it came to my pursuit was that I couldn’t prioritise. I didn’t know what I wanted, so as a result, I would be putting time and energy into things that in hindsight did not benefit me, and most likely only kept me running in place. Don’t be afraid to put yourself first! It’s not selfish nor wrong to sure that you are in the best possible frame of mind, and to remove yourself from a position that hinders that process. It will be difficult, the self-reflection required may give you some answers that you may not like, its possible you have to reevaluate relationships. But, Happiness is a choice, and it’s a hard one.

MY HAPPY GUIDE!

• MUSIC (I have a positive playlist that I listen to everyday)
• MEDITATION (Headspace is a great app for that)
• COOKING 
• DESIGNING (MY instagram is @blaq.designs if you want to see my work! 
• EXERCISE ( NEVER SKIP LEG DAY)