Chasing Happiness

It’s the time of year when people begin to make resolutions, often weighed down by the guilt they harbor after weeks of holiday treats and parties. For many, resolutions involve some new fitness regiment or a crash diet to “cleanse” after the new year begins and the holidays are once again behind us.

While health is important, convincing yourself to adopt new habits out of guilt and shame is a sure-fire way to fail. I’ve come to this conclusion in two ways. One was influence from someone I follow on Instagram whose posts and messages always challenge me to think about health and food in new ways. The other is living in another country where there aren’t six straight weeks of holiday celebrations. Instead, holiday meals pretty much take place the day of the holiday. There were no Christmas cookie parties and office ugly sweater parties, so I was able to forgo the sugary, though delicious, treats this year.

I’ve also been putting a lot of thought into what I’d like my intentions for 2019 to be. While I do want to work out more and try my hand at some awesome new recipes in the kitchen, I know that ultimately, I want to live a happier life in 2019.

So many people talk about “achieving happiness.” If only these key pieces fall into place, they will finally be happy and fulfilled, but what I’ve come to learn is that happiness is not a destination. You don’t just arrive at happiness and stay there in a perpetual state. Instead, happiness is something that must be sustained. There are no key pieces that ultimately lead to a happy life. 

Happiness must always be pursued and how we come to happiness will change as our lives and circumstances change.

And it’s important to remember while in the pursuit of happiness, there will be bad moments, there will be bad days, and there may even be bad weeks, but if you truly want happiness, you can’t forget to find joy in every day, otherwise you may just fast track yourself to a bad life.

So while I have set many intentions for 2019, including the intentions to be more active and go a year without shopping, my ultimate intention is to keep chasing happiness and build on all the joy that I found in 2018. 

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