'Your happiness is in your own hands'

A Story by Wabecca

Inspirational (hopefully, you tell me!) piece of writing about understanding the true meaning of happiness. It is short and sweet.

When people tell me these superficial quotes like the one above, I immediately look at my rather chubby hands and cup them together.

I am a very melo-dramatic girl, ever since I was young I have thought EVERY TINY PROBLEM was the end of the world and I could never recover. This meant my mother spending what must have been days out of her year to stroking my hair, plucking my eyebrows and telling me everything is going to be fine. Some people may think being that melo-dramatic cause’s unwanted stress, spots and comfort eating, and it does.

But you need to understand whoever you are, however you deal with life’s tiny and life’s massive problems, it is all down to you.

At the end of the day, you don’t have to pick up the phone and talk to someone, you don’t have to go to school, you can live your whole life not talking to your mum, you can pick any route you want, you are your own tour guide. It is your choice. You already have that control, and I know this passage is very assertive and ‘bossy’ but I am Bella from the Tweenies. That bossy b***h that no one really liked and would dismiss the opportunity of having a party bag if they got a napkin with my face on it.

Happiness is a strange thing, in today’s society it seems that it has to be captured like a wild animal, caged and shown as an attraction. You have to smile at your co-workers or they will think you are depressed, you have to smile at the people you hate the most because if you snap they will think ‘something is going on at home’. You have to eat healthily and take pictures of you in the sun, with your friends when in actual fact you would rather be in bed, with Bridget jones and glass of wine. You have to have some sort of love interest or people think you have weird trust issues, you have to wear the latest fashions and people will judge you if you don’t gym 6 days a week.

Being happy isn’t walking out of the door plastered in bright colours and smiling until your jaw locks. I can’t tell you what being happy is to you, but I know it can’t be ‘put on’ or even fixed by someone else. Happiness for me, is like the scales of justice. There must be a balance in life or I can never be happy. I personally need those melo-dramatic moments, I need to cry and I need to hibernate in my house until I make every room smell of sleep. If my life is too easy and I get everything I want, then I can’t be happy. I like that fight, but then again if the fight is too much, I sink. This balance is what I strive for and it can be achieved through success, support and my beautiful family. What is happiness to you? It doesn’t have to be a clear idea or a weird anecdote like mine, you just need to think about what truly makes you happy.

There is no judgement as to what makes you happy. I know people that have to spend every waking minute outside the house, with their friends and a glass of wine in their hand to be truly content with life. I also know people that have to work long hours and graph for their money to be happy. I also know a person who is happy when they have ketchup drizzled all over their meals.

To be happy, you need to cup your hands together, scoop up what makes you happy (metaphorically, we don’t want ketchup everywhere), and look at it. That’s when you realise happiness IS in your own hands. I am sorry I had to agree with that boring quote, but there is a lot of truth in self control.