happiness what is happiness can you get happiness thats everlasting or is it always glimpses?

Question

john b thats well written and truly tragic

Answer 1

Happiness is something inside, it is not something that you can pick up from any one single thing or combination of things on the outside. It's who we are and what we decide to be, it's not what others make us. People in the far north of Norway spend months waiting for the sun, thinking, when the sun comes out I will be happy. But when it finally arrives and they live in the land of the midnight sun, and they realize they are not happy, that the sun doesn't bring happiness and everything else in their life has remained the same, the job, the family, the debts, the neighbors, etc. then they give up, They have the highest suicide rate in the world, because they expect something on the outside to bring happiness.

We are happy because of what is happening inside of us. We have to learn, to train ourselves in a way, to develop that feeling and culture of happiness. It takes time but we can be happy each day, just in what we are and where we are.

Answer 2

Happiness, is a personal thing that can only be measured by each individual. I dont think you can get everlasting happiness as life is always throwing up things for each of us to cope with. I find happiness in my life at differing degrees at different times. I would say i have a great life filled with lots of love and i feel lucky when i look around at a lot of other people but i in no way have found everlasting happiness. I believe we wouldnt know happiness if we hadnt experienced sadness, so im afraid both may have to go together. In answer to your question i think it is always glimpses, some lasting longer than others.

Answer 3

I know some people who are more happy and some people who are less happy, but everyone I know spends at least 50% of their hours being frustrated.
The happiest-- I do know of 2-- spent most of their life dealing with negativity that is beyond my wildest imagination. They are compensating for torrents of unhappiness. They push themselves (and maybe you could do this too, I don't kow) to see beauty in everyplace and everything. They stare at someone who, under normal circumstances they would shun, until they find a thousand reasons that that person is beautiful. They also go out of their way to first imagine and then live the life that they imagine is worth living, and in this respect appear childish. That is, one is climbing trees at 25, the other eats fire. They dance. They sing. They play instruments. They paint or write. They volunteer. They are vegetarians. They say their happy. Of course, who knows.

More realistically, I'd guess that sometime in the next 30 years antidepressents will be powerful, lasting, and without side effects. That is, I honestly think we'll in the near future overcome the struggle for happiness with pills. Meanwhile there's mary jane for ya.

Oh, and of course there's also a powerful happiness brought by love. Though, in my experience, love, no matter how tame and mature, brings also with it a very deep unhappiness.

Answer 4

Someone once said that Happiness is a series of good moments pushed together...
I think that as humans we are creatures of leisure and pleasure and ONLY want to feel the good, yummy emotions (of course there are exceptions, those who are only 'happy' when miserable, complaining...)
Of course, when things get a bit rough, we pout and rage and curse our luck/fate/situation and the euphoria of only a few moments ago, is forgotten. The potential to be happy is the underlying knowledge and acceptance that everything in life changes and the ONLY permanence are these sudden/gradual/abrupt/random changes. Everything else is just fleeting. Of course attitude will play a role on how we deal with both happiness and sadness.
There are also various grades of 'happiness', from things that give us superficial pleasure, to things that gives us a deeper contentment.
We also go through pain/loss/ anger/disappointment and all those feelings so that we know how to measure and appreciate our happiness when we find it.

Answer 5

Happiness is really what you make it. I know because I've been there. I used to be really depressed and always feeling down. And I blamed other people for putting me down and making me feel bad. But then one day I was sitting outside and just thinking. And i realized, it's not everyone else's fault that I'm depressed. I let people get to me when I shouldn't have. So like I said, happiness is what you make it. If you only give yourself a glimpse, then that's all you get. If you give yourself everlasting happiness, then you will live a happy life.

Answer 6

Since everyone is individual, everyone finds happiness in different ways. But there again, happiness is an emotional reaction so you can't go out and find it...or can you?

You can find things to react to to stimulate the emotional response of happiness.

So, if we all feel happiness in reactions to different things and we are all exposed to the same things, some of us will feel happy at the times when others feel sad. Analyse this surfer speak:

For waves to exist, there has to be both peaks and troughs. When you're out in the line-up, there's no point trying to prolong the peaks and avoid he troughs because that's like trying to avoid the inevitable.

Basically, there are two sides of life, you have to embrace them both to acknowledge life at all.

I guess if you acknowledge more peaks and forget about more troughs, you remember more happiness, so ultimately, you are happier!

Answer 7

To be truly happy you first need to be at peace with yourself, flaws and all. It unrealistic to believe you can be happy all the time; its just human nature to get annoyed or angry at certian situations, so accept it.
And being a party animal; a booze hound; or a druggie won't make you happy. Its all a temporary facade. In the end you will find yourself worse off than you were to start with.
Find happyness through love; of yourself and of the people around you. Its as simple as that.

Answer 8

Never and always are no part of me. Nor is either of those terms attached to the word happiness. There is a conundrum here, however, and somewhat of an inherent contradiction in any attempt to define happiness. For by the time most of us figure out what it really is, it is time of us to go. I think poet Dylan Thomas said it best, "And death will have no dominion.."

Answer 9

Happiness is relative. A person can't be happy unless they have been unhappy. Anything that makes you happy will eventually become dull, boring or tedious at some point. The search for happiness is all about avoiding sadness.

Answer 10

If you could single out one thing and only be conscious of that one thing , then theoretically happiness can be permanent...but how much fun would that be? there are so many variables that you simply cannot focus entirely on one thing....I know that at any given time I am experiencing a veritable buffet of emotions....example...I can be happy about my child on a broad scale, and at the same time be disappointed in their choice, angry at their lack of respect, worried about their welfare, etc... I don't think any emotion is pure (as in the only one we are feeling at any given moment)
I think that's what makes the glimpses of happiness we receive so sweet....