2/22/2008

What is Happiness...?

For me, happiness and unhappiness is like two opposite sides that sometimes come almost together. This time is unhappy but the next time it could be feel happy, oh my God….it’s so crazy.

Then I come to the definition that happiness and unhappiness are just opposite sides of a judgment about our situation. If I judge my situation as bad for me, that’s unhappiness. If I judge a situation as good for me, that’s happiness.


Some people use to say “I feel good emotionally “to express of how happy they are. The other people use different terms to describe what feels good for them, it might be excitement, passion, fulfillment, freedom, feeling fully alive with inspiration and joy, peaceful, capable, hopeful, satisfied and comfortable feeling. What ever you say, it just feels damn good.

Supposedly, our natural state of being is to be happy.

Jennifer Hautman said when you remove all the uncomfortable emotions we humans can experience (and they are numerous), you're left with happiness. So it's easiest to define happiness by what it is not. There is list that defines what you feeling when you are not feeling happy…

  • sad
  • down
  • jealous
  • guilt
  • angry
  • self doubt
  • depressed
  • hateful
  • fearful
  • worried
  • unsatisfied
  • bored
  • grief
  • shame
  • discontent
  • anxious
  • annoyed
  • angry
  • irritated
  • stressed
  • upset
So what is about pleasure?
They look similar but actually not. Pleasure is enjoyment of outside stimuli. We might find pleasure in buying a new house or in going on vacation or having friends over for dinner, or …having sex, or etc….what you might enjoy experiencing. Pleasure requires external stimuli for us to experience it. Happiness does not
We can be doing something we normally experience as pleasurable but not be happy.
Happiness has more deep meaning. Happiness is a belief about yourself and born from the internal workings of our own minds.


“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
- Abraham Lincoln

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