What is the source of your true happiness? Is it one major thing in your life or a combination of things?

Many people, including myself, may find this question difficult to answer without writing a whole lot of stuff. Happiness involves so many different parts of our lives - but what is your main joy in life?

I don't think I can really answer that, because I don't think happiness is one thing. There are different kinds of happy -- the joy of something pleasant and unexpected, the loving feelings towards one's family, the contentment of doing an activity which you enjoy... and they all are happy things.

But, I think it doesn't hurt if your needs are met, and you can find something productive to do that you enjoy.

After thinking about it more I think that my true happiness changes with each stage of life I have gone through because my needs and focus in life changes. Right now my true happiness is my family (children, grandchildren, siblings, Mother) and spending time with them.

I have, too, have had many sources of happiness throughout my life. Friends then family, especially when the children came along As all of these things have settled into my life, I've found that the source of my happiness is really within me. And as I allow myself to be happy, pretty much anything can bring me happiness LOL!

A wonderful and supportive family and friends. I'm glad that I'm surrounded by people whom I can rely on and give me support whenever ugly and unexpected things come up.

I think make other ppl happy is really give u totally happiness at least this happen to me.

Be happy and also make other happy to live a fruitful life.Life is like a mountain so we should spread love like a fountain.True Happiness help us to be a wonderful person.

True happiness for me is when my husband looks at me after dinner and says, "Dinner was out of this world." Then as he is clearing the dishes he walks by me and kisses me. That's what it's all about for me.

True happiness for me is when my 20-year-old stops by the house and when he leaves he reaches down and gives me a big hug and says, "I love you, Mom."
I melt.

True happiness is when I'm painting on a canvas and totally have no sense of time and space. I get lost for hours on end. That's true happiness for me.

And finally, true happiness is when I can make other people happy and put a smile on their face.

good question, i do not think i have found true happiness. i would like to though. i think i have put so much faith in some of the people that i love family ect, i just seem to get hurt over and over again. i believe when the good lord comes for me he has promised me happiness with him.

I believe that if we are experiencing unhappiness, we really need to turn to ourselves, rather than those around us. Let's face it, our friends and loved ones, no matter how well they are intentioned, can disappoint us. We have no control over other people and what they do. But we can control our own happiness, and we can count on ourselves. So I think if we are experiencing unhappiness, it's very important to first start with a gratitude list, then work our way out from there

I also believe in making other ppl happy and live life in a positive way.

It's pretty obvious, but my source of happiness from day-to-day is getting to wake up that day. Waking up each day means more time to put into my passion, family and love.

True happiness is when you are grateful for all the things you currently have - family, friends, career, security.

Is in our nature, though, to seek for more in life - and that's healthy - but I think true happiness in life is when you are contented with what your are right now, where you are, and what you can do to others.

One must find something within themselves to be happy about before they can look out to others for happiness. There is always, something within each one of us that sparks happiness. We just have to locate that one thing and like Deanna said, work out from there.

What is it within yourself, something about you, that makes you feel good or happy. What ability or trait do you have that makes you say, "Wow! I am good at that!"

True Happiness? It's different things at different times for me.
It can be having a great discussion with my daughters about "life" or it can be walking for an hour by myself and letting my mind wander. It seems like the older I get - the happier I am ....maybe its because I agree with the post above,
I now realize that happiness does come from within, and being grateful for what I have.

This is the place I then start to grow from and reach for my next goal. That's how I grow and stay happy and excited about my life.


I know that I have value and am constantly evolving;that makes me happy.

I believe we ourselves control our happiness...
Same events might be perceive differently by different people. So if you think you want to be happy,nobody can make you sad.

Me, I'm happiest after I've just recovered from being sick! I love feeling healthy and energetic and productive again. My happiest day was a few days after getting my gall bladder removed, walking around my neighborhood after recovering from the surgery. Everything went perfectly, I was healthy and home again, and I'd never felt happier.

I also have ulcerative colitis, which flares up every few weeks. After it's calm again, I find myself savoring my happiness. The flare ups are awful, but the happiness when I'm healthy again....priceless!

I use to go out of my way to make people happy, but it really didn't make them happy, or me happy. I'm learning to make myself happy. Yoga makes me feel good. I'm being greatful for the things I got, I like working in the yard, watching the animals, Travel.

Hi PattiJean,

This was a lesson for me too. Especially since I believe we are truly here to be of service to one another. I had to learn being of service did not mean taking responsibility for someone elses happiness. :::whew:::

Hi Deanna,

I agree with you. I learned a lot about making other people happy. Before this I also try so hard to please people around me until I learned about NLP. Its not our responsibility to satisfy or be responsible for other people happiness if they reluctant to do it themselves.

And beware, one of the personality of people who develop cancer is trying too hard to please other people but neglecting yourself needs.You are not going to success if you try to make other people satisfied because people never satisfied.

Welcome to the Inspiration forum NoorAza

I do agree... when we are not true to ourselves, we can develop a myriad of physical ailments. It's so true that we need to love ourselves and honor ourselves.

Hello Deanna.
It's nice to know by reading some of these posts that we're not a lone. Sometimes when I start to go backwords. I read a post and something hits me. I am going into the right direction.

Patti

Hi PattiJean,

It's nice to see you again!

It's a good feeling to find we are going in the right direction. A confirmation can take us a long way

I agree with Deanna... Its good Patti if you know where is the direction you are heading. Certain people dont even know where they are heading in life. If we dont know where are we going, we are heading nowhere. That is the important of having your own plan for your life. If you do not have any plan, you will fall under someone 's plan that might cause you unhappiness.

You are right. NoorAza, I do know where I want to go,and I am going in the right direction.Sometimes,I forget and something seems to remind me of the direction that I am going.

Hello Deanna,
You too
Yes it can.

I don't know if anyone can actually define true happiness as a general rule, because it varies from person to person.
For me it means that you know where you fit in the big picture and you know what you are supposed to do with your life.
You know who you are and you accept yourself totally.
These things, to me, are very close to having true happiness.

There are other things that make me happy, like my family, my friends, and so forth.
But true happiness is realizing where you fit in the world and being fine with it.

I just want to share what I learned from NLP called Parts Integration. The technique is use if we have 2 things conflict in our life but we have to make decision.

I have seen many people who actually keep thinking that they have to choose one between two.But after the technique, both choices are actually have same reason - happiness.

Of course we are different and have different needs Sara, but everyone want to be happy. How they perceive it is based on our experience and surrounding.

I think the consumerist societies we live in tend to promote happiness through buying things. We'll be happy if we have this or that. I think it's so pervasive. We've ended up in nuclear homes with our own tvs washing machines, dryers, computers etc, too many clothes that we dont' really need (fashions change weekly now, not yearly) etc and it's all because from birth we are inculcated with this information that if we only 'have ....(fill in the blank) we will be truly happy. And how long does the acquisition of a material thing keep us happy for? About a couple of minutes. By the time we get home that happiness is pretty much gone.

You just have to look at the 'luggage' they are selling as handbags to realize how much 'stuff' we need to carry around now.. Stuff we are told we need but in reality we really don't need.

I fell into that consumerist trap yesterday. I needed to find a top to wear to a wedding on Saturday. While out I found 3 other items (all on sale) that I bought on impulse. I'm looking at them now and thinking, well, I can use them -- but I really didn't need them.

i'd rather go back to the days when large amounts of people shared smaller spaces and the 'worries of the world' were shared. The extended family stuff. It meant less privacy. Privacy has now become a very valuable commodity. I think it's over priced and over-rated and basically isolating.

We need to learn how to 'share' again. Worries shared are worries halved. It's an old cliche but it's true. I look at the street I live in. Everyone in their little box houses or apartments with their own appliances etc, and focussing on being 'happy,' while scrambling to earn a living to pay for all this stuff. It's the new 'serfdom.' only the people who own us aren't 'lords of the land' they are huge corporations. We are actually working to pay for profits that go to others. Like mice on a treadmil. On and on it goes. How can we be happy doing this? Where's the time for happiness in this sort of situation. And how can we be happy when we are so insulated from others? I think the key to happiness lies in sharing, helping others and in forgetting about being 'happy' and just getting on with the art of living. Kurt Vonnegut the writer asked his son the doctor what he thought life was all about and his son answered him, " I think we are here to help each other get through this thing called life."

meanwhile the stuff we are consuming for our happiness quickly becomes rubbish/trash/garbage and is disgarded and is cluttering up and polluting our planet. It's so sad. Our planet is being polluted creating all this unneccessary stuff and then it gets polluted by this stuff being discarded.

And we are now being poisoned by our food. Those of us that are lucky enough to have enough food. There are so many additives in our food, even vegetables are riped artificially a lot, all so food will grow faster and be more convenient and 'cheaper.

governments no longer run this western world. Big corporations do. And they are in the business of promoting happiness through consumerism and they, by just taking a look at the trouble our planet is in, in terms of environmental and social upheaval, are doing it very well. We are taught we can't be happy unless we have this and this and that and so on. Yet when we get these things are we really any happier. NO.

Beyond the basic necessities of life it takes to live people don't get any happier. Actually they become more unhappy as they acquire more because the answer is not in having more money (unless you are homeless and starving) but in being a useful member of the society you live in and reaching out to help your fellow human.

I know all this stuff.... and yet, I spend a lot of my time falling into old traps. It's very pervasive. We live in a quick fix society and really , there is no 'quick fix' for anything. Life is tough. "Life was not meant to be easy, but my child, it can be delightful." Forget for the moment who said that. But I'd add one more thing. Share our lives with others more and life would not be quite as tough and it would be even more delightful.

You know, I read the other day that the roman philosopher Epicurus (from whom the word Epricurean (sp?) has come from and in our society means to be a 'fine diner' an 'appreciater of fine food') actually considered it a 'luxury' to have some cheese to eat with his bread and fruit. But he never said it was about the food. He said it was not about the meal but the friends we share it with. I think he'd be really p*ssed off at being so mis-understood and that his name has come to be mistakenly associated with 'fine dining.'

The source of my true happiness? Myself. Nothing I have now is different from what I had two years ago; yet, when I made the decision to be happy (and it was a split-second decision for me), I was. I was tired of being miserable and wanted to be a positive, upbeat, and ridiculously happy person.

Without making the decision to be happy, I would get stressed out about pathetically small everyday things. If I succeed at something, it makes me feel good. If I fail at something, I feel even better to know I can learn from it and try again and again.

Here are some reasons I am happy:
*I am 20 years old, meaning I have my whole life in front of me to meet great people and learn from them. I also have my whole life to convert sad people into happy people.

*I have two beautiful kitty children and have been in an amazing relationship for almost four years with a man that I will be married to in early 2010.

*Everyday is a new adventure. Each day gives chances to laugh, love, learn, and teach.

*Weather. If it is sunny, I breathe in the light. If it is gray, it is a chance to keep other people's moods up and be grateful that the Earth does not only have sunny days, because that would be boring.

*I love to learn. I am earning a college degree now, and I honestly don't ever plan on NOT working toward a degree. Meaning I want to be in college for as long as it takes to get all the degrees I want (in astrophysics, animal psychology, math education, and finish my degree in nutrition so I can teach it).

*I am extremely lucky at my age to have all the things I do. My father helped me start a real estate business five years ago when I was fifteen, and it is growing by the year. Our family has horses that I am able to go out and see at any time. I am lucky, but am also grateful.

*I have so many hobbies, including writing, reading, drawing, dancing, singing, drumming, videogaming, learning, loving, and laughing.

*I have the ability to take anything that could be considered "stressful," "bad," or "upsetting" and learn from it while being happy I had the chance to come across it. I have not been truly stressed out for almost a year now, and I'd like to see it stretch for many years to come.

I love my life, and wish that everyone else would feel the same.

It has always been sources outside of the people in my life. Michael Schumacher is my god since I first saw him in May of 1996. Eric Lindros retired with the Dallas Stars and thanks to that team I am still alive today. Then there's my favorite music, movies and shows. I also love to read and write and when I am fully into a book or writing (havent written in years though) I am also happy. There's also walking. Nature, when I am in nature I am more than happy I am serene. Also animals, it does not matter what species, when I see an animal I immediately smile.