31-day writing challenge Day 5

 Today`s topic is a hard one for me: "Happiness". What even is happiness? What makes us happy? Is it essentially the same for all of us or do we experience happiness differently? I`m going to talk about what I think happiness is and what makes us happy.

I`ve never been a happy person. Which is a really sad thing to admit. What I mean is that I`ve never felt real happiness. There might have been a few moments here and there, I guess, but I`ve never had a period of my life were I felt genuinly happy. I`ve always gone through struggle after struggle, and although that has made me a stronger person, I wish I could have some happiness as well. So, perhaps I`m not the right person to answer this question. Because I don`t really know. I decided to ask ChatGPT for help.

The first question for ChatGPT was: What is happiness?

"Happiness is a state of well-being characterized by positive emotions, such as joy, contentment, and satisfaction with life."

I can relate to feeling joy, but the state of well-being is quite unknown to me.

ChatGPT also gave me a quote about happiness:

"Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions." - Dalai Lama

This actually makes sense. I definitively think that happiness is created by a safe environment with friends and family, good neighbors and a safe school, but in the end, we are the only ones who can create our own happiness.

It also gave me a reflection of happiness:

"Happiness often shows up in the small, ordinary moments- a favorite song playing unexpectedly, the warmt of sun on your skin, a quiet laugh with someone you trust. It`s less about chasing and more about noticing."

This year I`ve been going on a course where we learn about mindfulness and stress managing and I have noticed how important it is to start paying attention to our surroundings. To just be. Enjoy the sound of nature, the birds, the silence. It find it very difficult to do on purpose, but sometimes I catch myself actually just listening to or smelling my surroundings.

I decided I wanted ChatGPT to give me a little challenge so I can really think about what happiness is. It asked me a set of questions which I`m going to answer.

1. Noticing the now. What are three things- big or small- that brought you a sense of joy or peace this past week?

- First of all- my cats. I cannot live without them and I try to cuddle with them as much as possible. But the thing I love most about them, is their genuine joy when they see me. I feel loved.

- I started editing a video. I know absolutely nothing about video editing. However, as a creative person who wants to evolve, I found it quite exciting, especially when I managed to figure out a lot of stuff.

- I went to the gym for the first time in 5 months, and I got a sense of accomplishment which made it even better. I didn`t have time to stay at the gym very long, but I showed up and did a few exercises, and that was enough to get that kind of feeling.

2. What does happiness feel like to you? Is it quiet and calm, or is it laughter and excitement? A sense of purpose? Being seen? Something else?

- Can I say all above? I don`t know if being seen gives me happiness, but it is definitely important to me. But having a sense of purpose, laughing with friends/family and also doing things out of my comfort zone or things that give me adrenaline is what keeps me going.

3. Patterns of joy: Where do you most often feel happy- a certain place, with certain people, doing something specific?

- This is a hard one. I have found a new place that makes me happy and I feel adventurous when I go there, but I don`t want to go there to often as I am afraid that I`ll ruin the feeling. So I`ll only go there if I feel like I really have to or if I`m having a bad day. I`m also an ambivert, but the extrovert part in me loves hanging out with people, so I guess that gives me happiness.

4. A memory snapshot: Think of a moment you were truly happy. Where were you? What could you see, hear, smell, taste, touch?

- My thoughts instantly went to my year in Australia, but more specifically, lacrosse. It was a sport I`ve only seen on TV as we don`t have it in my country, but I absolutely loved it from the moment I tried it. I already love sports, but there`s just something about lacrosse that makes me happy. And it`s even better when you score and when you get to meet a lot of other people that loves lacrosse as well. When I was in Australia, I played as much lacrosse as I could, before I knew I had to return to Norway. I miss lacrosse everyday.

Huh, look at that. I actually have moments of happiness even though I might not always notice at first.

Okay, so ChatGPT had some really good questions. I even took it a bit further and asked it to make me creatively exploring happiness, but it`s a whole thing that I need to really sit down and think and- be creative. Maybe that can be a "Happiness part 2".