Happiness Sold Separately

September 6, 2006
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

You can buy an education, but happiness is sold separately. You can buy a new car or you can buy a new house, but happiness is sold separately. You can go shopping and buy everything you want, but happiness is sold separately. You can get married or you can get divorced, but happiness is sold separately. You can make a lot of money, but happiness is sold separately. You can win the Lottery, but happiness is sold separately.

You think you will be happy when you buy the new car or the larger house. And you will, but not for very long. Money can buy you a new car or a larger house. Money can buy you many things, but money can't buy you happiness. Happiness is sold separately and it cannot be bought with money. Money buys things, and happiness is not a "thing." Happiness is an inner state of mind.

We all want happiness. People want to be happy. This is the basic reason we do everything that we do. We may think we are trying to get things, so we can feel more secure, be more loved or maybe we feel more important. The truth is that we do everything we do to derive happiness. If we learned that the main reason we desire the things we want are to experience happiness, we would value happiness more than just "things."

Aristotle so apply stated: "Happiness, therefore, being found to be something final and self-sufficient, is the End at which all actions aim. A thing chosen always as an end and never as a means we call absolutely final. Now happiness above all else appears to be absolutely final in this sense, since we always choose it for its own sake and never as a means to something else."

In other words what Aristotle was saying is that all things are a means to an end except one thing. That one thing is happiness, which is an end in itself. So we might say, "Our search has ended," we have found the thing we most wanted but did not know what it was until now.

Happiness is something that you must keep choosing by the practice of being happy. Stop letting go of your happiness every time something happens that you don't especially like. Happiness is a skill that you learn by doing it. Happiness happens by acting as if you are happy until you actually start being happy for longer intervals of time. Happiness is also an emotion that you learn to control for your best state of well being. Why let yourself be ruled by your negative emotions.

Being unhappy because someone else is unhappy makes as much sense as finishing the food on your plate when you're not hungry just because other people are hungry. Years ago, parents would tell their children to finish the food on their plate because people were starving in other countries.

Happiness cannot be bought or sold. Happiness must be a decision that you have made because you want it and value the importance of it. It's true that you can share happiness. What you experience is someone else being happy within themselves just like you. We can share what we have, if we have it. You can share happiness only if you have happiness yourself. If you don't have happiness, how can you share what you don't have?

Happiness is sold separately because it is not found outside of yourself. Even if something wonderful happens to someone you love, the happiness you feel is a direct experience you have within yourself. Happiness cannot happen outside of you.

This is a good time to purchase happiness for yourself. Don't forget that: "Happiness Is Sold Separately." Money can't buy it, but you can have it. It is yours for the taking.

Our next Happiness Club meeting will be Thursday, September 21, from 7:00 - 9:00 P.M. at the Fairfield Public Library, in the Rotary Room at 1080 Old Post Road, Fairfield. The presentation will be "The Healing Power of Happiness...Follow Your Bliss," by Dr. Paul Epstein. A new paradigm and approach to health and healing. Understanding and using the mind-body connection. Exploring how biography becomes biology and illness as opportunity. "When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change." Cultivating healing attitudes and qualities of being. Meet some wonderful people using happiness in their lives. Admission is free; everyone is welcome. For further information call Lionel Ketchian at 203 258-7777.