What does happiness mean to you?

Family, money, achievements or chocolates? It is true that people perceive the concept of happiness in different ways. However, theres one thing that falls similar to all kinds of happiness the smile that it draws on your face and that reflects in your eyes. Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognise the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world.

Such a day is a reminder to assess our perception of happiness. We live in a changed world, unlike what our forefathers lived in. Todays world has seen the giant leaps of technology and IT that have taken control of our lives. Yet, like everything has an other side to it, even tech has its share of a bane to give us. And at times we fail to recognize the faint line of separation between the good and bad of it.

Social media has taken over our lives like never before. The sickening fact, however, is that social media has swamped our real life, luring us into its tantalizing virtual fantasy. It has taken over our emotions. Emojis laugh out in the virtual spaces, whereas, in the real world we are cold and numb. We visit a place not for the happiness it induces in our minds but for the Instagram-worthy pictures that would bring in likes, which alone can make us happy.

We eat meals not to feel happy after an appetizing meal but show-off the sumptuous meal before the world, again, because that alone can bring us happiness. The question is, have our individuality become so fragile that we always depend on other people for happiness.

Why do we pin our happiness to the approval of a random stranger, when he or she has nothing to do with our lives? Why do we not laugh our hearts out as our emojis do? Why do we think twice before smiling at each other? Have these virtual emotions drained us of our real emotions?

Have become mere zombies that lead an ironic life of pretending to be happy for all the wrong reasons only to be appealing in the eyes of others? Shouldnt we consider being happy in our own eyes, at the very person in the mirror, first? Let us not let machines kill the very essence of life. After all what good is a life bereft of true emotions? True happiness is when it creates ripples right from the soul to the eyes. It comes from within and is communicated through the eyes. Lips can fake a smile, but true happiness is what you see in the eyes.

So, this International Day of Happiness, set out yourself on a real journey to find true happiness.