What makes you happy?

Happiness is a natural ability of every human being has. We all have emotions on things that we encounter, and how we handle these in various circumstances is controlled by our brain.

Admit it or not, people are always separated based on their social status. We work for a living, to pursue our dreams, to maintain our family’s economic rank, etc.… but are we really satisfied with our lives? Are we happy about our current circumstance? Are we looking for a way to make ourselves happy?

Happiness is easy to get, but it is also hard to feel. Totally, it depends on how you define it! Even though I feel lonely sometimes, I am really satisfied with my life. I have an awesome closed family, perhaps not rich, but we live happily when we get together.

August last year, I traveled solo to the Philippines for two weeks and stayed in my host’s family to experience the local lifestyle. Seriously, the life in Taiwan and the Philippines is really different. Our salary, quality of life, and transportation system maybe are better than the life there. Once, I asked a staff in a mall about her salary. She worked 12 hours per day, but she only takes home 491 pesos (USD 10. That is, at that time, the minimum wage  in the Philippines. I am not going to talk about the economic problem in this article. People here work 8 hours per day as a full-time staff, and the basic salary is more than 1,000 NTD (USD 31). In most Asian countries, the workload is really heavy.  However, most people would complain to their government, and hate their current life.

Perhaps, we should find some other ways to balance the quality of life we live. I often say that I am really fond of Filipinos, because during those two weeks of staying there, even though I knew how tough life they have, as long as they live together, no one can stop their positivism and enthusiasm in life. Satisfaction, in the end, is the key to a happy life.

Things that make you happy all depend on how you see the things. We can’t control the life we have, but we can make an effort to change it and make it better. Change your attitude now, enjoy the things you do, and complain less on things you encounter. Remember: Always look at the glass half full rather than half empty.

- Timothinks