Happiness...Where are you?

I've asked some of my friends if they are happy, many answered with the resounding YES. Then I asked, how do you gauge your happiness? Many of them said, "I can feel it" and some said "I just do what I do without boundaries" and "just being me" said the rest.

My next question to my friends was how do you define happiness? and the answer given by the majority was "can I relate it to my experiences?" and the rest just said "the burden is gone away" plainly.

I was contemplating with their answers and tried relating it to my own signature of happiness and what i found out is that happiness can be defined only by the person experiencing it and not by the translations an audience can give. It is something that is felt and experienced only by the individual.

We can definitely see a smile on a person's face, brightness in their eyes, jolly in their speech and charismatic in their personality and we most of the time define these to be happiness, but is not always true, we don't see the burden that they carry, we are blinded with what we see.

Then I asked myself; How many of the people around me have I disregarded? I didn't pay attention to what their messages were, i wasn't there for them, I laughed with them alright, but did I listen to their hearts and have known their wants? How about their needs at that time?

Then, I sighed..."How unfriendly of me" i uttered. The uncaring heart that I have just means that I am missing a lot to make a difference, losing the opportunity to be happy and make people happy. I need to satisfy my needs and be fulfilled, that is the first step, my next is to influence the people around.

Who is there to help?