What does true happiness mean to you?

True happiness to me is quite different than what an average person my age would think (I am 17). I am truly happy when I am learning and furthering my experiences in life. I’ve traveled the world, lived in other countries, learned new languages, started college early, and I find this all exhilarating. Living life to it’s fullest capacity is what makes me happy. Having family and true friends to experience these things with you makes it all the better.

Happiness for me is having a job that I enjoy, having my health, and people whom I love surround me (and they love me in return). Happiness is being open and honest with my feelings, being genuine, reaching out and giving love and not being afraid to accept it. Happiness for me is finding joy in the smallest things. Feeling as though what I am doing in making a difference in someone else’s life (I’m a teacher).

Happiness for me is not afraid to live… Having a sense of adventure and not holding back.

I have my health, my mind, my love ones to be there for me and I have a lot of love to give. That’s all that I need to be happy.

I don’t believe in “happy” in the long-term. I think there is contentment punctuated by happy (even joyous) moments – but I think “happiness” as a state if being is a myth perpetuated by self-help gurus and Hallmark.

Being close to 56 years old , I’ve learned that listening to gain wisdom , good health , love from my family and loving myself is what happiness is all about .

I’m in my mid 40’s and just coming to terms that being content is okay, being happy with less than I originally strived for is okay. For me lately, anything that isn’t a disaster or great hardship is happiness because there’s so much in this world I can be distracted, enamored of, engrossed by.

Loving yourself, that to me is the meaning of life.

My family and partner are happy and I am continuing to learn.

I’m pretty much with @cprevite. I don’t think happiness is what we should be looking for. It will find us in random moments of bliss, on its own schedule. Being at peace with yourself and your life is a worthy goal, though. I say I’m happy, but what I really mean is I’m at peace. I think that peace comes from accepting the way you are (and the way the world/your life is), while still moving forward to make things better.

@augustlan, I think that’s a great answer—and I am inclined to agree. I think that as a society, though, we are just so caught up with finding this so-called happiness that we get lost in the mix sometimes.

Authentic happiness relying on lasting gratification instead of merely seeking to extend a series of pleasurable moments.

Happiness? I don’t know if I’ll ever see that day.

Jude I love what you said. Especially “Happiness for me is not (being) afraid to live… Having a sense of adventure and not holding back.”
To me enjoying life to the fullest means staying open to new things. Never losing your curiosity, never thinking you’ve got it all figured out. If even on a bad day you can find something that makes you smile and gives you hope, living that day was not in vain. Life is so short. It’s something I always try to keep in mind and I think something that we all need to be constantly reminded of, especially in the hard times. Happiness is like gratitude. You can focus on the negative but then you’ll miss all the beautiful things that are there right in front of you. And when things are going well and you have a happy occasion or a celebration, or say you fall in love and that person loves you back, you have to feel that joy and wonder with all of your heart and soul. You have to try not to let that little nagging voice in the back of your mind say “don’t be too happy, this may not last!”
A.A. Milne who wrote the Winnie the Pooh stories had this to say about happiness. I tried to find the exact quote but I couldn’t The purest happiness we ever have is that which we have as a child because it’s the only time in our lives when the happiness is not tainted by the knowledge that the happiness will not last.