Last update: April 14, 2017
We all want to be well and this is a difficult principle to deny. If we ask someone what he wants to achieve in his life, he will rarely tell us that he wants to be unlucky, sad or a failure, vice versa he will tell us that he wants to be happy. People want to be happy and try their best to find their happiness.
Despite this, even if everyone wants to be happy and satisfied with their life, few people know how to do it. Nowadays, defining happiness is complicated, we live in the paradox that any object can bring us closer to that feeling, but, at the same time, nothing is enough to be truly happy.
Instead of being faced with a subjective state of happiness, we run after a concept that we have transformed into an ideal. Nowadays, happiness has become a myth represented by objects that enrich a few people, at the expense of the dissatisfaction of many.
The infinite search for being happy
A simple search on the Internet is enough to understand the current obsession with the pursuit of happiness. There are millions of articles that talk about what you need to do or not do to be happy, what scientists say about happiness, what are the steps to follow to achieve it, or what are the exact steps to climb to achieve it.
Not only are we obsessed with achieving happiness, but we also desire it in all areas of our life: at work, alone, as a couple, with family, every day, in life… In all possible areas we look for the little keys that will help us feel less unfortunate.
This search is an endless task, since happiness itself has now become an impossible ideal to achieve. The current definition we have attributed to happiness is closer to that of romantic love in the movies or that of the epic quest for the Holy Grail, rather than to its real meaning.
The trade of happiness
Businesses and the advertising world have never ignored the needs of their current and potential customers. Both are looking for unmet needs and, if these do not exist, they are concerned with creating them or looking for new ones to introduce a product or service that satisfies them.
Happiness attracts attention, sells, and everyone wants to be happy. Companies know this and seek customer trust and satisfaction through planned strategies. They play with emotions to push people to achieve happiness through consumption.
"Happiness has become another consumption factor, as if it were a product that we can buy in a supermarket for a certain amount".
-Angela Vallvey-
It is no coincidence that the economic crisis coincides with the fervent sale of happiness. In times of crisis, happiness is money.
The dictatorship of happiness
Not only has happiness become an object of consumption, it has also been imposed on us as an inevitable rule. We went from wanting to having to be happy and, along this path, we have also assimilated phrases such as: "wanting is power".
Phrases like this are a double-sided coin. On the one hand, they spread positivism and the motivation of "nothing is impossible" or "I have to smile more and complain less", but on the other hand there is the "I have to be cheerful" or the "I wanted and I am not there successful, so I did something wrong ”.
In the context of a society in crisis, where the sale of happiness is a marketing strategy for many companies, it is always good to remember that, sometimes, however much we may want something, we cannot always get it. Furthermore, we must not forget that the responsibility for not achieving our goals does not always lie with us.
Happiness does not live alone
Happiness is a subjective feeling, just like many others are, it is one among many. The private life of each of us is made up of emotions and feelings ranging from being cheerful and happy, to being sad or angry.
Each emotion has its own usefulness and they are all necessary and perform a specific function. Emotions help us give meaning to our experiences and it is therefore essential to live and try them all.
“Disney had to come and explain to us that anger and sadness are necessary, that these are what make us the people we are. In the movie Inside Out, the real heroine is sadness and the fall of the Island of Stupideria into the child's brain is the best metaphor for what we have to face ”.
-Quique Hairstyle-
And you, what do you need to be happy?
Happiness has no set guidelines, nor does it depend on branded products or magic formulas. Each of us has our own personality, tastes and preferences. What can make one person happy could be a catastrophe for someone else.
Happiness is not achieved by buying shirts with a positive message, following the plans of others, or faking a smile to look good in the photo. Happiness is much simpler: it's about asking the right questions and looking for the answers away from standard texts or empty products.
“Yes, everyone is happy nowadays. This is what we tell children from the age of five. However, wouldn't you like to be free to be happy… in another way? In your way, for example, and not in the way of others ".
-Aldous Huxley. The new world-
