Dear Y.E.S.S.,
Is it more important to make myself happy or to make others happy? Sometimes I am asked to do things that I do not want to do but feel like I must do in order to make others happy. So I do them at the expense of my happiness. For example, the other weekend I was asked to go to a family gathering the same day that my best friend invited me to go camping. I really wanted to go with my friend camping but ended up going to my family gathering because I knew that it would make my parents happy. But I ended up being unhappy.Dear Unhappy Camper,
Making others happy can be very frustrating because people are very difficult to please because of their self-centered mind, sometimes you can do all the right things and there will still be people who will be unhappy with what you have tried to do.
In the Eightfold Path using the Right Speech to try to communicate with your parents how you feel might be the way to solve your problem. Also using self-reflection as a way to ask yourself AHow much time have I spent with my family?@ And AHow much time have I spent with my friends?@ may help you to make a choice between two activities happening at the same time without feeling as if you did something you really did not want to do.