20th March, 2022 is the International Day of Happiness.
It is a day to recognize and celebrate the fact that happiness is an important human right and goal. All of us are entitled to be happy in our own way and capacity.
It’s hard to define happiness in absolute terms. It can mean different things to different people with multiple variables involved. Some might consider the feeling of being content as happiness while some look for the meaning of life in art. Oddly enough, I feel like every day should be a celebration of life and the ability to feel joy even if the universe can be a cruel and vexing puzzle sometimes.
For instance, I am transported to a different dimension when I look at the clouds float over majestic mountains and watch the birds pierce through those clouds with the utmost elegance.
And well, as clichéd as it sounds, I’ve always felt that my mind is the canvas for the nature around me to paint the most vivid and endless forms of art through visuals, sounds and touches. Your mind is too, if you allow it to be.
How Does Art Make You Happy?
Art makes us more observant and helps us find minute details around us. Things usually missed by our naked eye and busy mind. Experiencing more details can be the pathway to find more ways to feel the serotonin rush and the oxytocin overdose through breathtakingly beautiful things around us.
Happiness is the ability to create and imagine, to believe and inspire. Even if that inspiration comes from a place of grief or trauma, the art you create, be it a painting or a poem, gives you the ability to express and release.
In fact, art is the most powerful form of releasing remorse and expressing emotions.
The power of art has always stood the test of time and tyranny. It is a medium to bring change that echoes through generations and rocks the foundation of all that is wrong with our world. Impactful words, eye-opening imagery and the current of change running through those who create such art is another form of happiness. The happiness of seeing people stand up and demand reform and remedies for those who are suffering.
Art unites us together and drags humanity out of its tunnel vision to root for things that really matter: peace, secularism, freedom and creative expression.
This is the power of art: The power to transcend our own self-interest, our solipsistic zoom-lens on life, and relate to the world and each other with more integrity, more curiosity, more wholeheartedness.
Maria Popova
Art can truly do it all. Art is home, art is happiness.
Written by Sparsh Paul
