What to do to reach long-term happiness

Are you chasing happiness?
Last night I had a chance to see a few former female colleagues again. We have a close relationship and are good friends. There are two main reasons for the meeting. Firstly, after the social isolation and many employees were fired from their job, including me, we wanted to meet to talk about life after the crisis. The second reason is that people love and care for me a lot so they want to help me overcome my emotional shocks.

Everyone seems to be doing well and temporarily overcomes these unfortunate difficulties. I try, too. In the 5-girl group, three of us ended our relationship because of COVID 19. We shared our views based on suggestions and to help each other better. No one criticized the other's partners.

I feel relieved to understand many things from the perspective of my friends. The former boss also broke up with her boyfriend and shared about her future plans to remain single and raise a cat without a husband or lover. She told her mother that plan and soon received extreme opposition. Based on the view of a mother taking care of her daughter, her mother said: "No matter how much you love to take care of the cat, when you are ill in the hospital, who will take care of you? "

She just answered, "I have been for the past few years, and I just need to save enough money to take care of myself, and I will be happy with the life of raising a cat or becoming a single mom in the future."

I asked myself what the definition of long-term happiness is so that we will not have to worry about difficulties, instability, or loss that may occur in the future.

I suppose when you raise any pets, you will find happy moments with them. Do you ever ask your cat or dog to make you laugh every day? No, you till have lots of fun without a single command. You find pleasure in caring for and observing your pets. They look sometimes foolish, naive also destroy your stuff and never say sorry. But you still smile every day when you see them after returning home after stressful working hours.

So what is long-term happiness?

Simple, happiness is giving away without asking for a response. You don't need to love others with the need to force them to love you back. Do not force them to do anything to deserve the affection as repayment or effort you made.
"There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving."
Only then you will feel peaceful, unselfish, and never fear or insecure that your expectation might not be met. This is when you are truly happy and more responsible for your own feelings and your life.