Watering Our Inner Seed With Care and Love!

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust

While I agree that seeking for happiness outside of oneself is perhaps a recipe for disaster, I humbly argue that it depends on how one goes about cultivating happiness outside of oneself. In other words, are we doing whatever we are doing for the right seasons and via healthy methods? At the end of the day, I argue that it is impossible to be happy with oneself on one's own since we are social creatures. We need people to the point that external forces (people, society, culture, etc.) will always have the capacity to influence our state of happiness since people are a part of everything. People write our favorite books. People create our favorite shows. We need people when we wish to divulge our interests and dreams. We need people to share our experiences with us as we stand at the top of a mountain. We need people as we fall in love and see our faces in our children. Thus, it is important to make sure that if it is pre-ordained for us to need people, then we must be careful of how we try to go about being happy.

On a happy note, there are many ways to go about cultivating happiness, so that we can water our inner seed that is meant to blossom into a magnificent and sublime tree that will stand strong and long lasting.

Here are 7 best practices that I personally commit to in order to water and care for my tree that is only possible if I am happy, at peace with myself, and motivated!

#1 Make People Happy

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." -J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Since we are social creatures that need people for a multitude of reasons like happiness and acceptance, I think it is important to be kind and giving. For instance, I personally get a lot of joy from giving the people I love random gifts just because I know that it will make them happy. I do not do it because I want to buy their love; I do it because it shows that I care while simultaneously making them feel loved. I think when both parties feel loved and appreciated, then a world of possibilities and benefits open up. The practice of being kind and making people happy also refers to strangers or people you don't like. It takes a lot of guts to be kind to someone that you don't like when all you want to do is be unkind (and possibly punch him/her in the face). It also says a lot about you be kind when no one is watching, but that kindness might have been the one thing that that this stranger needed to keep moving forward. People are always fighting the good battle, so it benefits everyone to be compassionate and kind since you can rest a little more peacefully knowing that at the end of the day that you were either strong enough to be the bigger person or you might have made someone's day instead of possibly ignoring him/her.

#2 Hangout With Friends

"Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled." —Allie Condie, Matched

I am a firm believer of the power of love and laughter, which is only possible if one revolves oneself around people that can make something mundane extraordinary. For instance, my friends manage to make hanging out in our dorms feel like a party just by being together. There were so many days that we would spend hours in the dining halls eating, talking, and laughing even though we see each other every day all day. We were never bored, and that in itself is a blessing. In the end, as social creatures, we rejuvenate in the presence of people that make us feel validated, seen, and loved. They have the potential to convert the most horrible experiences and days to something bearable just by being there with us. Fortunately, not only do friends make us happy, but they serve other functions like filling our lives with warmth and feeling though I do admit that we have be careful while in school not to succumb to their orbit all the time or we never get anything do, but otherwise having friends that we can share our experiences, dreams, and fears with is what we all need for optimal health and well-being!

#3 Eat Good Food

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ―J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Eating good food has always made me happy to the point that it would make me dance at times because it stimulated all my senses and made my soul and heart soar! Because food has the capacity to be aesthetically pleasing, artfully blended, and aromatically enticing, food is a conduit for happiness since good food is a feast for the eyes, mouth, nose, touch, ears, and spirit. Something as simple as food has the capacity to not only make me feel nourished and fulfilled, but it makes me happy too because it has the latent function of forcing me to appreciate the small stuff while simultaneously living in the moment. Good food is a luxury that illuminates my privilege, which is something that should never be taken for granted. In the end, good food is like ambrosia and nectar from the gods, which makes me believe that food has the capacity to make me feel human and connected while also making me feel otherworldly. Unfortunately, it is hard to take the time to eat good food with enthusiasm and gumption when we are always on the run; thus, it is important to designate time.

#4 Dance your heart out!

" There is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore. See, this is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life"-Footloose

Being active is beneficial to one's life because it boosts your health in the long run, and can make you happy. I personally love to dance even though I can hardly stay on beat to save my life. It literally took me like a minimum of two days to learn the box dance for a Tik Tok video, and I still did the dance way too fast. I would never claim to be gifted at dancing or an expert, but the thing is you don't have to be because you can reap the rewards as long as you just do it. In all honesty, it makes me happy just being embarrassing with my friends because we just have a really good belly laugh that like I said before, is really good for your health along with exercise.

#5 Indulge in Your Hobbies

“One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”―Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

I really love reading, playing board games like Turista, and watching sci-fi, historical, crime, and fantasy dramas and movies. They make me happy because they allow me to sit back and either become someone else for a bit or be critical without there being a stake in it. I get to live in Narnia, Hogwarts, Prythian, Tulsa, Camp Half-blood, Lunathion, Lunar, Idris, etc. without having to step one foot outside of my room. I marvel at that privilege since I have the leisure, stability, and safety required to just sit back and read for the sake of reading; thus, reading is one more activity that forces me to appreciate all the moment has to offer without forgetting that my privilege could be transient one day. In the end, taking me time is necessary in our pursuit of happiness especially because our interests will one day play a part in what we decide to do for the rest of our adult lives.