In search of happiness…

What is happiness, in your opinion? The answer to this question has been debated for centuries by thinkers in the intersection of fields such as philosophy, psychology, and sociology. While there is no single definitive definition, we can say that happiness is a state of subjective well-being where an individual is as far removed as possible from negative emotions like sadness, anxiety, stress, anger, jealousy, and distress, and is surrounded by positive emotions such as self-confidence, emotional stability, health, satisfaction, love, and success in social relationships.

So, let's ask another question: what makes you the happiest? The answer to this question is somewhat related to the environment you live in… If we consider that happiness is not a continuous, permanent emotion but often consists of moments, for people living in metropolitan areas, it might be reaching home in a stress-free climate, a peaceful day at work without being subjected to mobbing, receiving a promotion, getting good medical test results, or perhaps a nice meal with the family… These are things that seem very simple when described, but are often impossible to achieve in the struggle of daily life… 

The stressful and polarized environment of Turkish politics, the anxiety about life and livelihood, children's schooling, house rent, job insecurity, and the effort to keep one's body healthy in an unhealthy environment are factors that tire people out, especially in big cities… The common dream of the majority is to continue their lives in peace, either in a coastal town or a mountain village. If they cannot do that, at least to spend their retirement in peace…

While these goals were relatively achievable and rational 5-6 years ago, in today's Turkey and under current economic conditions, they have turned into high-cost and impossible dreams. The high rate of unhappiness in society cannot be explained solely by economic reasons. You often encounter people around you who have everything but are still very unhappy. We are in an era where we witness the drama of people who can buy everything but cannot buy happiness.

This drama also often increases the longing for the past. While a New Year's postcard from years ago receives hundreds of positive comments on social media, the colorful celebration videos produced by today's artificial intelligence do not create the same effect.  While capitalism and consumer culture offer humans all kinds of possibilities with infinitely different options, they cannot create a fundamental value that satisfies the human search for happiness. 

For the first time this year, as the new year approached, I noticed that even the temporary happiness brought by the New Year did not permeate faces or places. There is only an anxious rush on the faces of people scurrying through streets, parks, gardens, and shopping malls. Sometimes this rush is accompanied by a ball of anger… This anger appears in every age group, sometimes in a traffic argument, sometimes in a checkout line at the grocery store, and sometimes through peer bullying at school. In the midst of this whole chain of unhappiness, people's refuge consists only of the virtual moments of happiness they watch on social media… The longing for the past is also a longing for the values, solidarity, togetherness, and the ability to be happy with little from the past… As the famous thinker Socrates said, “The secret of happiness is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”

It is certain that “enjoying less” is also an act that requires a pleasant state of mind. A person who has lost their joy and happiness has no reason left to enjoy anything, whether it be little or much.

An example showing that having everything is not enough to raise happy generations came last week from the heartwarming images of İbrahim Kale, a father in İzmir who is struggling to raise his three children alone. The joy of his daughter, who was filming the father—who had just entered the kitchen as he was from work and was trying to cook for his children—with great happiness and love, was indescribable.

Those words that spilled from the father's lips actually told us everything: “They are very happy when they come home from school. They want to go straight to the kitchen to see what I'm cooking. Seeing their joy takes away all my fatigue."

These are words that serve as a lesson to those who cannot find happiness even when they have everything, or to those who miss it under the stress and rush of life… Do not stop looking for happiness in moments; life is too short to carry the burden of so much negativity, envy, and anger…