Self Happiness

As I prepare to start up this website, I have been taking a closer look at what brings me happiness in my daily life.

This morning I had a student, Ji-Won, greet me with what I described in my head at the time as a “pure unadulterated joy” that was so contagious that it really put me in a great frame of mind for the rest of  my day.

Suddenly, I was left puzzled.  What is that difference between children and adults where kids seem to experience more extreme levels of joy?  My thoughts curiously pondered that word “unADULTerated”.  How fitting that my brain naturally came up with that word.  I looked up the definition:

Unadulterated:  not mingled or diluted with extraneous matter, pure.

Perhaps that is part of the answer.

As adults we are often ill-equipped to handle the harsh realities of life.  As we wade through our many experiences, we accumulate baggage, build up noise, harbor regrets and resentments, develop anxieties, and more.

Now whether children are truly happier than adults is another question I plan to tackle in another post.  In their world, they deal with problems we have long forgotten.

In this site, I will take a deeper look into what makes us happy and offer advice on how to become happier.  So what makes me qualified?  I’m not a psychologist nor a self proclaimed guru.  I’m not some prolific blogger or diligent writer, but I am super CURIOUS about everything.  I’m just a person who is genuinely happy and constantly looking to improve myself.  I think that’s enough.  That said; expect about one post per week around here.

I’ll leave you with a couple of my fundamental beliefs about happiness:

1. YOU are ultimately responsible for your own happiness.
2. Happiness comes from controlling the things in your life you can control and keeping the things you can’t in perspective.

Thanks for visiting and check back soon!