WHAT IS HAPPINESS TO YOU?

Happiness: How do you define it? I don’t mean, “ Hey Siri, what is the definition of happiness?” I mean when you think of happiness, what pops in your head? Is it hot cocoa on a cold day, or is it hanging out with family and friends? For all my taken ladies, maybe it’s being in the arms of your lover! For my single vinas, maybe it’s Channing Tatum’s rock-hard “Magic Mike” abs. Happiness is different for everyone and is not usually any one thing. No matter what form it comes in, we need to realize when it comes knocking and embrace it.

My happiness? The little things. Of course, getting published one day would make me happy, but the real happiness? The kind that stays with you in the toughest of times? They are born through any one of my five senses and live on in your heart as mere mental moments, like the sound bites that life provides in the most subtle ways. Happiness is the sound of my little sister’s laugh, her smile, the look in her eyes when she discovers something new. It’s looking in the mirror and seeing something worth loving, putting together a cute outfit that I didn’t steal from Instagram. It’s the taste of success big and small, the feeling of petting my cat, Pepper. Happiness comes in many shapes and sizes, and sometimes I don’t even know it’s happiness coming to say hello until the moment has come and gone. However, I appreciate it all the same.

Happiness isn’t something to be chased, because it is all around you, sitting in plain sight, hanging around in places called opportunities. All we need to do is reach out and grab them.

About two years ago, I had broken up with my boyfriend of six months, and my 18-year-old heart was pretty bent out of shape. It didn’t have much to do with him, but rather me questioning why I wasn’t allowed to be happy; Why couldn’t I simply have a man to be there and make me smile? Quite frankly, I wanted to be someone’s world, and that’s when the light bulb lit up, and I realized that my happiness was right in front of me. I didn’t reside in a man. It was about the moments in front of me that happened every single day. I had to learn to appreciate the little things and let them fill me up with the joy and love that I deserved and from that.

So after all of this, let me ask you: what does happiness mean to you?

Share your happiness with the people you love – get on the Hey! VINA app to find vinas that share your “joy language.”