Happiness is basically a state of being happy and content. Several philosophers have given different views on this topic however the most dominant one is that happiness comes from within and must not be searched for in the outside world.
It is sad how people look for happiness outside. Many people associate happiness with money. If this was the case then rich people would have never felt sad. But on the contrary, we see that it is the rich who seem more anxious, fearful, stressed and often experience relationship problems and suffer from depression. Celebrities such as movie stars, singers and ministers have hoards of money and yet the divorce rate of these people is much higher than the general public. These people live in constant fear of being chased or hit and hence require security all the time. They are more fearful about the safety of their children. They are also the ones more prone to theft and robbery. Many of them have so much overflow of wealth that they are constantly stressed about where to invest or hide it. On the other hand, those belonging to the poor classes are often more carefree and joyous.
This is not to say that being rich is a bad thing. Having money means that you have access to a lot of things. You can go on holidays, plan social gatherings, purchase good clothes, buy properties, live in a good locality and a lot more and all this brings in a feel good factor which is an essential component for being happy. However, believing that if you have all these you will be happy is wrong. Materialistic things can make you happy momentarily but cannot help attain true happiness.
It is rightly said, “You will find true happiness in life when you realize it only takes “you” to be happy. True happiness lies within yourself, it doesn’t come from others”. This point has been emphasized at several places. But most people dismiss it as irrelevant. It needs to be understood that happiness is basically a state of mind. It cannot be achieved from things we see outside. We have the power to create it with the help of positive emotions which can be achieved with good thoughts.
It is basically our thoughts that create our emotions. So we need to work upon building positive thoughts and a positive outlook towards life and it would ultimately result in true happiness.