is it bad to be happy?

The happiest country in the world according to statistics, is Finland. Not Canada, Finland.

It seems as if in today's culture and society success is based on money and fame. If by the time you die, you are not increasingly wealthy and famous, you have not led a successful life, according to some. I'm coming to find out and to realize for myself that that mindset is made by the devil himself and is not true.

I think it was in that movie The Bucketlist with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman when these two guys are dying together and have very different perspectives on it. Morgan Freeman who is generally happy teaches and helps out Jack Nicholson shut up and die peacefully. I'm pretty sure there's this scene when Morgan Freeman says that life should be measured by the amount of joy you gain and the amount of joy you help other people gain.

This is why Morgan Freeman is a god I'm pretty sure he wrote his own lines and everything for that movie.

I hadn't thought about this till recently, but I'm pretty sure that somewhere scientists and doctors can prove that people, in general, are becoming more and more depressed, anxious, and dissatisfied with life.

I think that part of the reason the level of happiness people reach in their lifetime is slowly going down; is because they don't make happiness and peace in their lives a genuine goal. We are constantly trying to reach for something we don't have, push ourselves to our limits, and beat our best times. While learning and making improvements in everyday life, is it so bad to sit back every now and then and just be happy and grateful for the few things you do have and have accomplished.

This also does not mean to simply hand out participation awards. What's the point of life, of constantly earning and gaining if you never stop to take some time and appreciate what you have reached. It's funny but sad to think that the American way of life really is practiced by a fraction of the people around the world that live differently than us. There are thousands of people that will never have the opportunity to excel in life and become wealthy and famous. Yet, some of them seem pretty happy and okay. Is this so terrible?

Another film that portrays this idea is Yesterday. It came out sometime last year and I honestly wasn't a big fan of it because I was expecting to see the story and biography of the Beatles but instead it was some strange time-stopping story.

But in the end, the guy gives up all his money and power and decides to live a simple life. He marries the girl of his dreams, he plays his music to a fewer number of people and is genuinely happy.

So even though Highschool teaches you to never stop comparing yourself and being scared and petrified of failure, it's okay to let yourself be happy.

As a very pessimistic person myself, it's really hard to let yourself be happy. You want to prepare yourself for the worst. You want to put up a wall and avoid good happy times because you know it will just end with more bad times. You want to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Life truly sucks. But it doesn't have to 100% of the time in my humble opinion.