You may be one among all of us who cringe when looking at themselves in the mirror, aren’t happy with their job, or with a relationship and other aspects of life. You wish you were someone else – anyone else – but yourself. It is often hard to think positive. Many of us have always been thinking only of the goals and never had the time to enjoy life. We are more worried with satisfying the needs of others - my boss in my office, my friend in my club, my children and wife at home and many others. In the course we just forgot about ourself.

I began to surf the internet looking for answers on how to be happy. There I found, there is no dearth of methods and ways to be happy. There were toolkits and lessons to make you happy, exercises and yoga postures to remove the stress in you and make you happy and a lot more. The question that arose in my mind was, why is it then there are so many people who are still struggling to find happiness?

Then a doubt arose in my mind. Am I looking for happiness at the wrong places? After making another round of the web sites and books on the internet on where to find happiness the following two lines stood out.

• Look for happiness within yourself
• Look for happiness on the journey rather than at the destination.

Both these sentences looked harmless and simple but I could not fathom out how to look for happiness within myself, and, during the journey rather than at the destination.

I came across this article in the "Times of India".

" It was a curious case of entertainment aboard a local train on a weekday afternoon. As soon as the train left station, this reporter found a place to sit and was on the verge of being pleasantly lulled to sleep. An old women, with a plastic basket, was doing the rounds seeking alms. She casually started rummaging through her worn out basket and whisked out a small microphone and in no time all thoughts of sleep vanished at the sight. Soon, the entire compartment sat straight up as the lady's booming voice hit the passessgers. Sometimes, it's better to focus on the journey rather than the destination. "

"Sometimes, it's better to focus on the journey rather than the destination." This sentence made me sit straight. It was like a bolt from the blue. A complete surprise, like a bolt of lightning from a blue sky. I realised happiness was there all around me but it was I who was mistakenly looking for it everywhere else.

The boring daily office work, worrying about your children, paying of debts, and many more similar chores are a part of our life. Thinking of these things should not make us forget about the present. We should learn to live every moment and live in the moment. There are many things which are beyond our control. At the same time there are things which are in our control. Just forget everything and think for a moment - if we want to be happy can anyone or anything stop us from being happy. No. No one can do this to us except we ourself.

Many times what we do is we try to convince ourselves that if we do something or achieve a goal we will be happy. If we pay off all our debts we will be happy. If we earn more money then we can be happy. It never happens that way. The truth is you can find happiness only at the moment. Our life has its ups and downs and you have to learn to live with them.

Check this out to find for yourself whether you are living in the moment or not.

• How often have you eaten a meal and not really tasted it
• Completed a chore or drove to work without really thinking about it

So, how can we live in the moment and be happy.

• Live in the moment. It is living like there is no tomorrow. It is not easy to live in the moment. It needs practise. Watch the children and they will teach you how to live in the moment.
• A child is not thinking about what happened to him yesterday, or what he’s going to do later today. At the moment he is a Superman, and he’s fighting the bad guys, and nothing else in the world exists. If he gets mad about something, he overreacts, and nothing else in the world matters but what has upset him. But he’ll cry about it, and then soon return to normal, happy again, the offending situation forgotten without a grudge. He has no cares about tomorrow. We need to use children as inspiration, and try to be like them sometimes. Jesus instructed us, “Be as a child,” and those were wise words.
• Take notice of the world around you. Find something beautiful around you.
• Focus on whatever you are doing. Even if you are sweeping the floor do it like Micheal Angelo would have done his paintings.
• Do that which makes you happy.
• Smile when you wake up.
• Avoid the activities that dull you. Escapism like watching TV, daydreaming and getting lost in a good movie is not bad, but it is not living in the moment. Keep them within limits if you are unable to avoid them. Do more of activities like gardening, playing an instrument, playing a game.
• Be thankful for what is already there in your life.

" There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way" - an eastern proverb.
How to find happiness