Sometimes I wonder if people can truly predict what will make them happy. I ask myself if it is something we can predict then why is the formula for happiness for most people constantly changing? Subconsciously, it changes with time, and with time comes age, experience, realities, etc.
I think happiness is the fruit of moments we choose to stay in for a little while longer. What I mean is that those times you blurt out how truly happy you are, are mostly in moments where you want time to pause and you want to linger a bit, like a house guest having the best of times.
Happiness is the choice we make while staring at the truckload of other choices life throws at us. For instance, imagine saving up for weeks to buy a gown you admire then you finally get it. When you get home you decide to put on the gown so you can go hang out with the ladaiieees! Then, in one very short moment, you hear that dreaded tear sound, and it happens in a place where needles cannot pray their way through. You have a choice, there and then.
Choice one: Choose to cry, get sad, beat yourself up for not being more careful.
Choice two: Laugh so hard that you decide to take a picture and send it to your one or two best people to make fun of how a new ‘shege’ dropped on you today.
Who among those two choices would you think is happier? Choice two right? That’s because the second choice is of a person accepting of life’s flaws and knowing which battles to laugh at. That doesn’t make choice one wrong… It just means they want to feel all those frustrations in that moment, and denying themselves the ability to see their inability to control things is probably what may calm them, maybe.
The question remains though, what does it mean to be happy? For me, I will write these:
To be happy is to be free.
To live in the moment.
To accept the things I know I have no control over, and control the things I can.
To let go of things that hurt.
To laugh in the face of crazy adversity, what else is there to do?
To be accepting of growth.
To be loved.
To give love so fully.
To grow with life.
To dream, to do, to fail, and to win.
To be happy is to live.
To get older.
To be happy is to choose my moments because I can.
To be happy is to go through sadness knowing my hurt is but for a moment that passes with time.
To be happy is to be me, in all of my before, my now and my after.
To be happy is to be accepting of my past, my flaws, and my process to be better.
To be happy is life itself. An era of give and take, where something always has to give for another to flourish.
To be happy is to be continually curious.
To be happy is to be childlike, always finding what could be.
To be happy is to continue on my journey for a better everything.
To be happy is to live.
So, live in your fullness. Embrace who you were before, who you are now and who you want to become. Hopefully, you find your happy rhythm, as I have just described mine.
With love 
,
Yogi of Africa.