The Quest for Life's Meaning and Happiness




Define happiness?

Webster define it as "a state of well-being and contentment".

Yesterday, I saw a Facebook post from a cousin, which was about happiness and finding your purpose or finding a meaning to your life.

It was an old post from Emily Esfahani Smith on The Atlantic , an interesting piece of real life story, which was about Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who let go of a promising future in America.

He chose to stay with his wife and parents and serve the people in the Nazi concentration camps. Inside the camp, he wrote the book Man's Search for Meaning.

Incidentally, I have started a blog about my journey to finding happiness, love and wisdom and chronicled the steps I take to achieve that certain point of bliss.

As I was reading through the article, I felt ashamed of my worldly aspiration, selfishness and ignorance.

If I were to base that post with my quest for happiness, then I would say that I got it all wrong.
Finding happiness is just the tip of the iceberg. Finding happiness would be superficial , shallow and temporary.

What I should have been seeking for was my life's purpose or meaning which eludes me until today. Maybe, I should start searching for my identity, my own self which I have forgotten for quite some time.

But since I am but human, I admit that I need this shallow or superficial concept of happiness to temporarily fill the emptiness while I am still searching for the real source.

Does it make any sense at all?

Someone told me that life's main goal is to be happy. But to be happy in what sense and to what extent?

Do we really need to measure how much we can be happy? I guess by that, he also meant, getting to the source of happiness.

What Victor Frankl quoted disturbed me: "It is the very pursuit of happiness that thwarts happiness."

Because it is true. It's honesty hit me like a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. The more I tried to pursue happiness, the more it eluded me, based on my personal observation. 

Because I have been sweating it out trying to find out what happiness is, in this side of the fence, when I should have been enjoying it already on the other side.

Or maybe because each one of us have our very own idea of what happiness is like. Because we have different levels of contentment and satisfaction. No one can really be wrong with regards to his own perception of happiness. 

The true measurement of our happiness is relative to the degree of our contentment and satisfaction level. To some people, that would be finding and living their life's purpose.  While it could be as simple as eating ice cream to some.

But, there have been several known tips or techniques or formulas that claim to bring us happiness. And because of our individuality, we do not respond the same was others would to a certain technique. Altogether, I'd say that it could only be our own self who can say that we are truly happy.




Mere words can't exactly explain it, no one can accurately define it to its truest meaning, because it is felt by the heart and only the heart can identify the feeling as happiness.

How do you rate your happiness level in your life at this very moment?

Keep the faith,




0 comments

Popular Posts

Dream Boards and Manifesting The Things I Want.

Today, I stumbled upon a blog that inspired me a lot. I was just going through some stuff on Facebook, when I saw a link to her blog, Thoughts. Stories.Life.  Owned by @Sarah Centrella, a woman who have also journeyed through so much to achieve the things she is enjoying right now, I was so surprised at the uncanny resemblance of what she went through with my own experiences. And we also have blog posts that are somewhat similar in topics. I swear this is the first time I read her blogs.Goosebumps! A screen capture of Thoughts. Stories.Life On the brighter side, I am happy to know that someone out there shared almost the same experiences as I did. Makes me feel a little less lonelier. I think I am on the right track. What I liked about her blog is that she is a living proof of The Secret's Law of Attraction, which I have been mentioning in my previous posts. Being visual also about your dreams helps a lot to manifest your dreams. I have attended seminars and team buildi...

How Depression Affects Us

I have always been open with my experience with depression and this blog has been my medium for sending out information about this disease that cripples many. I still have my bouts but the good thing is I already know what triggers it so as much as possible, I try to stay away from those that triggers it. Recently, an executive from Healthline, Maggie Danhakl, Assistant Marketing Manager of Healthline.com saw my posts about depression on this blog and contacted me and informed me about a newly-released infographic on how to detect depression. The infographic is interactive and you can click on a particular part of the body and how depression affects it. I particularly liked that infographic because it gives a broader explanation of how the disease will alter the regular or normal functions of a certain part of your body. Photo: healthline.com View this interactive infographic, click the link below: http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/effects-on-body ...

A Time to List : A New Year's Post

It’s that time again for making new goals, resolutions, intentions or whatever you call it. I am not in the habit of making one for the sake of sticking to some sort of a plan, but I make it for the sake of making one, because it’s New Year’s.  And because I have this notion that resolutions are made to be broken. Or am I the only one who really had a hard time following through. pixabay.com A quick throwback to a year ago, I blogged about my essentials for 2014. And…well, what’d you know, I was able to fulfill at least about half of that. I was able to travel (for free although locally), I was able to continue writing, through this blog, and some others that I maintain, learn a skill /gain knowledge (getting ADWORDS Certified by Google), attended the most number of seminars and workshops I ever did in my entire life, and I was able to earn more through freelance projects and also with my ongoing online job. The thing that I wasn’t able to do though is.. to find...

Articles Featured on

Articles Featured on

Ads