I've never been (Un)happier

by Shaheen Bhatt

We’re taught early in life to keep our emotions hidden and we’re especially taught that negative emotions have no place in a public domain.

‘God, but life is loneliness,’ said Sylvia Plath. ‘Despite all the opiates, despite the shrill tinsel gaiety of “parties” with no purpose, despite the false grinning faces we all wear. Yes, there is joy, fulfillment and companionship—but the loneliness of the soul in its appalling self-consciousness is horrible and overpowering.’

No one can truly understand how you feel because the pain you experience is unique to you.

Your pain, like your fingerprints, is unique to you. In other words, you can buy happiness off the rack—but sadness is tailor-made just for you.

‘We’re the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war … our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.’

‘Take off the mask. You aren’t happy? Fine, you aren’t happy. One day you will be. And then you’ll be sad again. Accept that and stop wasting your energy chasing something that doesn’t exist. You can’t spend your life feeling bad about feeling bad.’

The only permanent fixture in life is change. Change. Change. Change.

This doesn’t mean that you go where the wind takes you and you stop taking responsibility for your well-being. It merely means that you accept that you cannot control it.

I am who I am in the now, and I have to work my life around that.

‘You must not allow your pain to be wasted,