Happiness...is the background of this blog?

(Disclaimer: The background of this blog may or may not load if you're reading from an Ipad, phone, etc.)

This might be a relatively unnecessary post in relation to my other blogposts, but I spent about two hours trying to choose a better theme, layout, and background for this blog yesterday.

"Cool Story, Bro," might probably be your reaction, as was the voice of my alter ego, however, the complexity in choosing a background that might define happiness to everybody was a a bit fascinating to me.

Even though I was on a time crunch, I decided to take the time out to choose how to best represent my theme of happiness? Should it be about what I think happiness is? Or should it be about what you think happiness is? And if it should, then how am I to decide what your definition of happiness is? (How would I even know what your definitions is? Do you know your definition of happiness?)

Looking at the futility and unnecessary over-analyzation of my questions, I decided to choose something somewhat universal or something y'all might be able to relate to.

I thought of choosing a background of a person in the "Namaste" pose, doing yoga. Yoga and meditation are activities that many people find happiness in, right? But does that reflect the definition of happiness in everyone's daily life? Well, maybe. Eh. Not my fav.

What about a background picture of a candlelight with a dark maroon background? It's very peaceful, right? The single candle represents a ray of happiness in the dark maroon background color of life, right? Well, no. Life isn't (or at least shouldn't be) as black/as morbid as the picture portrayed it to be and there isn't only one ray of happiness in life (at least there shouldn't be), there are multiple things that bring us small or large moments of happiness.

How about a nice nature-y picture. A picture with delicate white flowers. It's pleasing to the eyes...but that seemed like that was it. It wasn't that bad of an option, but then I asked myself, why not the current background I had chosen?

Well, there's...uh...uhm....well...there's...I guess there's really nothing... wrong, in my opinion. Take a look at it. Happiness, indeed, is as abstract as the canvas of my blog. The strokes of happiness in our lives are as unexpectedly abstract, some more heavy (dark) with happiness, some small and light, and some mixed with random similar colors in order to achieve what we thought would make that pink color of happiness, but it wasn't quite what we imagined. We all want to get a pretty pink canvas full of happiness, but our tragedies, our mistakes, our successes, our stupidities, our relations, our being human never really allows us to do so. But at the end, it turns out to be a unique piece of art, regardless of the fact whether you appreciate it or not.

I mean I could go on. Or I could be wrong, to you. Maybe you don't see it. Maybe you see it a different way. Maybe it's just an abstract background. Whatever it is, IT is now the reflection of my theme: happiness.

It’s true folks: Money can’t buy happiness

An interesting study was conducted, showing a correlation between income and the rate of depression. It's actually quite interesting, as I initially guessed that a person in a third-world country would be more depressed due to the lack of financial security than the wealthier person living in western countries. However, my hypothesis completely contradicted a survey, which was completed July 27, 2011.

Of the 18 countries that were surveyed, about 15% of the population in the top ten wealthiest countries were suffering from or had been diagnosed in the past with depression. On the other hand, only about 11% of the population in the developing countries suffered from depression.

The following is a breakdown of the surveyed countries:

From High-income:

• Japan: 6.6 percent
• Germany: 9.9 percent
• Italy: 9.9 percent
• Israel: 10.2 percent
• Spain: 10.6 percent
• Belgium: 14.1 percent
• New Zealand: 17.8 percent
• Netherlands: 17.9 percent
• United States: 19.2 percent
• France: 21 percent

From Low- and middle-income:

• China: 6.5 percent
• Mexico: 8 percent
• India: 9 percent
• South Africa: 9.8 percent
• Lebanon: 10.9 percent
• Colombia: 13.3 percent
• Ukraine: 14.6 percent
• Brazil: 18.4 percent

These statistics definitely caught me by surprise. How are richer countries trending towards depression? Shouldn’t they be happier because of all the comfort money can buy? According to the Huffington Post, the reason for this depression is.... jealousy! Yes, jealousy! In richer societies, there seems to be a level of competition to be rich, while in the developing countries, that sort of pressure isn’t as prevalent as everyone around seems to be going through the same financial circumstances.

In addition to the wealthier being more prone to depression, women are generally twice as likely than men to be prone to depression. There is a direct relation between gender inequality and women’s depression, as shown below in a 2010 chart projecting the percentages of women depression.

Living in the western world, I can definitely see the effect of competition: everybody wants to be THE best. However, this is obviously taking a toll on people's mental health, and even physical health. While being the best might be important, it's also important to realize when competition is taking over your life and happiness.

Here's my two-cents: Even if you believe in reincarnation, you're going to live THIS life once: YOLO! So don't make it miserable. Re-evaluate your decisions in life. Is what you're doing making you happy? If not, then friends, you're doing life wrong. Change your thinking. Do YOUR best. Someone is ALWAYS going to be smarter than you, prettier than you, [insert adj here] than you, but no one is going to be YOU. As my grandma tells me, "You don't have to be THE best, just do your best, and be happy with what you have." That doesn't mean don't stop trying. It just means the only person you should compare yourself and try to be better than is the person who you are today, and be happy with your best.

P.S: If you truly are the Western person described in the study, and the above doesn't convince you, then the following quote might: "The best revenge is happiness, because nothing drives people more crazy than seeing someone actually living a good life."