I always think of Elvis Presley's definition of happiness

"Someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to"

Sounds simple, and though I agree with that definition its not that easy to acheive on a regular basis.

Indeed. It seems like a hard bargain.

But then how can happiness be experienced if it's not preceded by a period of unhappiness.

But then how can happiness be experienced if it's not precede by a period of unhappiness. — TWI

Indeed. It seems the two are intrinsically linked. How do you reach a stable equilibrium?

I don't think you can, it's the transition from one state to another that makes you happy. After that boredom sets in.

I don't think you can, it's the transition from one state to another that makes you happy. After that boredom sets in. — TWI

I never quite get bored. Isn't the world entertaining enough on its own?

Yeah - most of the time. Mind you I do enjoy a spot of ennui now and then.

Yeah - most of the time. Mind you I do enjoy a spot of ennui now and then. — TWI

Do you agree with Schopenhauer?

I had to Google him (ooer' missus) I would have to spend time digesting that. I do believe we use our brains to project the appearance of the objective world, if that will do as an answer!

I had to Google him (ooer' missus) I would have to spend time digesting that. I do believe we use our brains to project the appearance of the objective world, if that will do as an answer! — TWI

Haha. Well, I suppose one can always be content with one's life. Now, where's that boredom you spoke about?

It's starting to set in now! Contentment, I used to dread that when I was young, now I embrace it.

It's starting to set in now! — TWI

Oh dear. We must banish it forever. Care to join me?

The aesthetic realm is where I would want to reside. Forever in amazement with such things as math and geometry.

I reckon after we die we choose our existence, we can create whatever, (for ourself, not for others) But I suspect we eventually get the urge for the feeling of the unknown.

I reckon after we die we choose our existence, we can create whatever, (for ourself, not for others) But I suspect we eventually get the urge for the feeling of the unknown. — TWI

Oh, another one of those questions we can always ponder about; but, never fully know.

Maybe we do know but have forgotten, temporarily.

Ken Dodd reckoned it was a one man band.

Happiness, like love, is--as you said--not something you can grab onto directly. One must approach happiness from the side, by living the kind of life that suits you. By itself, living that kind of life won't automatically produce happiness. So, having the kind of work one likes, having the kind of people in one's life that make one feel good, by having casual pursuits from which one can derive pleasure -- so on and so forth -- sets one up for happiness, but there is still one more step:

In order to be happy one needs to accept the deal happiness offers. Life probably won't provide happiness exactly on the terms one imagines would be perfect.

I know people who are unhappy because the deal life offered for happiness was like, 12% off from what they thought they needed.

Happiness just - happens.

In order to be happy one needs to accept the deal happiness offers. Life probably won't provide happiness exactly on the terms one imagines would be perfect. — Bitter Crank

What deal is that?

A warm well ordered workshop, with a lathe.

Oh, and a pillar drill and compressor, sigh.

I do get pissed off with my workshop sometimes when it's untidy, maybe happiness means not using it, just thinking about it.

I think happiness is hard to describe. It seems to be just a personal feeling of positivity and lightness or maybe elation.

But it does not seem to be evidence of value nor have a relationship with fact. Happiness does not prove that what your doing is good or that it has intrinsic value.

You could pursue happiness for its pure sensation but I don't know if you will find happiness by exploring reality or the truth.

It may be that you have to attain happiness independently of what is happening around you. I am not convinced that the facts of reality justify happiness. But it is a problem to say what emotions are justified in response to what if any.

It is possible that happiness may arise when you have achieved values and goals you have. Personally I don't think I can be happy unless I am in a situation of truth and authenticity. Overall I think it is quite elusive

What deal is that? — Posty McPostface

Whatever deal life offers that includes happiness. Like,

"Dear Posty McPostface:

"Here's the deal. You will go to college, major in philosophy, graduate quosdam laude (with some praise), and get a mid-level management job in a bio-engineering food factory where you will be totally unable to use your philosophy degree. In fact, the less you think philosophically, the happier you will be there. None-the-less, you will enjoy a nice, sophisticated, but fairly quiet life. You will have a happy life for 23 years. Soon after the 23rd year of bliss you will be run over by a robotic truck. Death will be pretty much instant. Once you are dead, you will stay dead. Finis. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. Kaput.

"That's the deal. Enjoy college and enjoy the engineered food business. It will be voted 24th among the 100 best places to work in 2029.

Yours sincerely,

Life"

That was awesome.

The happiest people in the world

Some international authorities have even designed a set of degrees they have called ‘the ladder of happiness’ in order to gauge which people are the happiest. They conducted several investigations and different questionnaires. The results were a surprise for everyone. It was found that the people of the United States are the most miserable and the most unhappy, and that that country came to stand at the bottom of the ladder, even though we are all aware of the extent of welfare which the individual American enjoys in their country.

It was also quite shocking to learn that the people of Nigeria obtained the highest degree on this ladder of happiness, thereby indicating that they are the happiest people in spite of the extreme poverty they are suffering!!! These are the results of a survey conducted by the American Newsweek magazine on the happiest peoples in the world .As mentioned above, on top of the list, which included sixty five countries, came the Nigerian people who are impoverished, most of whom are Muslims, followed by the peoples of Mexico, Venezuela and El Salvador, while the developed countries, on the other hand, to the surprise of the authors of that report, occupied a low position on their ladder of happiness.

We may reflect for a long time on the confession of the Americans who were interviewed in the report; that happiness is not about riches and money , which seems a surprising remark in such a pragmatic society that was founded on the extremist forms of capitalism. These results prompted the same magazine to investigate the phenomenon of the spread of religion in the United States .A new questionnaire was formed concerning the American’squest in search of happiness through casual meditation formulas, which are taken as doses for treating tired souls.

source: https://www.path-2-happiness.com/en/the-path-to-happiness-the-path-to-happiness-the-concept-of-happiness-and-its-reality

When I was in my teens and twenties I used to swing between happiness and unhappiness, but as the years have rolled by that swing has evened out and now in my seventies it has become a mix of both, a sort of calmness consisting of contentment and acceptance, quite pleasant really. It does lack the adrenaline thrill but I realise that is a double edged sword, been there and done it

Funny thing is, during the changing moods in my adulthood I've never wanted to be different, even when I was depressed.

There is a distinction I like to draw between ecstasy or elation and happiness. I like to draw the distinction because I think that we tend to focus, as a culture, on ecstasy and elation while ignoring a different kind of happiness that is more stable, lasting, and still worthwhile. So if we are not elated the tendency is to say that we are not happy, and to obtain said elation we usually have some objective we want to fulfill or object we want to obtain, and we experience elation when we are victors, when we achieve, when we obtain or own what we want or are attached to.

Happiness as distinguished from elation, on the other hand, is more akin to contentment. We may not have everything we want, we may feel sad or bad about some things, but we are also doing alright. We can accept the bad with the good.

I'd say misery is the opposite of this kind of happiness -- where we are unable to accept our current conditions of life. But this differs from elation in that we can be miserable yet elated -- we can set unrealistic goals for ourselves, fulfill them, yet be attached to a new, harder, or higher goal. And hence be dissatsified and miserable with life as opposed to happy.

And we can be happy thought we are not elated -- we didn't get everything we wanted, but we can accept the situation we happen to have now.

I'd say misery is the opposite of this kind of happiness -- where we are unable to accept our current conditions of life. But this differs from elation in that we can be miserable yet elated -- we can set unrealistic goals for ourselves, fulfill them, yet be attached to a new, harder, or higher goal. And hence be dissatsified and miserable with life as opposed to happy.

And we can be happy thought we are not elated -- we didn't get everything we wanted, but we can accept the situation we happen to have now. — Moliere

I think it can be personality driven. But I don't see inherently how acceptance is a better mode.