Where does happiness come from?
Most of us in industrial/developed countries enjoy a vast array of gadgets, nice clothing, beautiful accommodations, a delicious variety of food, etc.
From what I’ve seen in my travels, people in developing countries strive for these things, too.
Does abundance bring happiness? Does having a surplus of life’s necessities bring joy?
Or is it something else?
Pungent natural scents often bring me joy. I remember emerging from a closed car in Colorado and being struck in the face with an invasive wall of pine scent. The same thing has happened to me in other circumstances with other aromas, like puakenikeni flowers here in Hawaii, damp moss in Japan, marigolds on a hot day in San Francisco.
Does happiness come from running the career race, or do we really have to stop and literally smell the roses?
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32 Answers
I have found in my own life that happiness does not have any correlation with material wealth.
It comes from inside us as we interact with the world and with others.
My cat purrs happiness. If you look real close at her snout while she’s purring, you can actually see the happy coming out.
I am now a great-grandfather and that brings me happiness. I am still in love with the lady I married 45 years ago and that brings me happiness.
I may not have the best of trivial things in life, but my world is full of happiness.
I believe what makes a person happy are the small, inexpensive things in life. My mother was always happy just to receive a Christmas or Birthday card each year. This made her happier than expensive gifts. Its whats close to a human heart that makes the difference between being happy and not being happy.
Most people, in foreign countries, have grown to accept their surroundings and really want more. For the best part, most are happy. Happy with their children and happy to have what meager items they have for their existence.
Happiness is a state of mind, in most cases. Its what a person does with what a person has is the key.
Yes, it’s an ‘inside’ job. Not that some material comforts do not help reduce survival stress, but, ultimately it is in not ‘seeking’ your worth or identity in things or other people.
I have done a LOT of ‘work’ in this area over the years, and feel very liberated in no longer feeling any attachment to my worth or identity from ‘out there.’
I am happy because ‘I Am.’ ;-)
Have you heard about a poem where the richest man in the world who has everything, got everything in his dream, kill himself at the end because he wasn’t happy.
I think when we set goals and wants, and we chose to chase them give us butterflies, when we finally get there having it. We do a Victory Lap and a fat-man touchdown dance. After that, the happiness of getting something goes away.
For me it is the little things in life that make me the happiest.
:)
Food, family, computer and being healthy.
For happiness we need to feel that we are treated with a fair sense of justice by the powers that be or be distracted sufficiently enough not to care; a circus and bread show if you will.
Other points of happiness come from what we feel from our ‘cocoon’. Within our immediate realm, do we feel safe, loved, cared for, useful, appreciated? Our happiness rating will have much bearing on these things.
Happiness for me would be if the damn Sabres would finally win the Stanley Cup.
I think that much happiness comes from being a good animal. Our bodies need regular and vigorous exercise, good rest and healthy nutrition. When we give our bodies what it needs, then we are rewarded with great joy.
Within, pure instinct. Or, it can be found in a fairy’s cleavage, wrapped up in buttercups.
@Trojans40
Very well said!
Right, the satisfaction is short lived until the mind finds the next thing, relationship, whatever to attach to as some sort of future ‘salvation.’ lol
All suffering is rooted in desire. Drop identification with desire and you are home free! :-0
@Trojans40 Might the story you are thinking of be the poem, Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson? It depicts that money does not buy happiness and that what you see on the surface does not always reside underneath.
So where does happiness come from? Many thoughts come to mind, but it all seems to boil down to what ended up being developed in each person’s brain. And it varies from person to person. If each of us were to analyze what brings us happiness, I bet we could drill down to the factors that stimulated it in our youth. Please understand that I am not implying that we are who we are solely based upon the “nurture” vs. “nature”.
@Seelix He might have missed it. ;-)
The best things that make someone happy are the small things in life… and for people like me some heavy adrenalin!
@Pied_Pfeffer Yes that the exactly what I was thinking, the name keep dissappearing in my head. I think there is more to it than just money in the poem, the fame and the attention of such can really pull people down into a crowd that follows them or glaze them today.
What would happen thou,Pied_Pfeffer if one of the youth did not have a happy childhood?
We all have different aspect of happiness and what make us happy.
Love and money put together seems to be very powerful, although they both don’t do very well alone.
For me personally, happiness is an inner thing.
Happiness has to be generated within the mind. It might depend on hormones or synapses or some other physical working, but almost certainly not due to creature comforts. People in the poorest of circumstances can still be happy and vice versa.
It appears to be pretty much a matter of choice with some people, but takes practice for others. In my experience with children, it seems to be spontaneous in most of them.
As Cheryl Crow sings:
” It’s not about having what you want, it’s about wanting what you have”...Think that sums it up perfectly.
As @YARNLADY said, happiness is a choice. It is a way of looking at your world, and appreciating what is happening instead of complaining about what isn’t happening. Try going close to death. That’ll help you see how life is such a huge gift and how lucky you are to have been given life. There are an infinite number of people who were never born. Only a few billion who ever got to live.
But it doesn’t matter what your reason for being grateful is. Appreciating what you do and who you are and who you are related to—that can turn ashes into happiness.
Although, if you are depressed, it is pretty hard to do this. Happiness seems like something other people do. It seems completely out of reach. When depressed, it is a huge challenge to choose happiness. Still, one can be grateful that one is depressed. That often helps you get out of it, oddly enough.
I get simple happiness from watching little children play and laugh and enjoy life. I can’t help that. It just grasp that I do. Is that a choice?
My happiest moments are just watching nature, the sky, the clouds, trees, birds.
Feeling intrinsically connected to the totality of life.
Today I saw wind waves in the long spring grass, I pulled over on my little road and stopped my car just to watch the wind ripples in the grass. Perfect.
It comes from PERMA.
P ositive Emotion, E ngagement, R elationships, M eaning, and A ccomplishment.
From brain chemicals that seem to be depleted after a certain age. Endorphins. As a famous comedian put it, “money can’t buy happiness; only OPTIONS.” Now, back to the q:
By the time some people figure out that “things” won’t make them happy they have to rush to figure out just what will do it for them. By that time, they[‘ve been so indoctrinated and brainwashed into what they should be doing with their lives according to society and their peer group it’s too late. They’re just too darn old to be able to figure out , “how do I want to live? what kind of person am I, really?” So they just plod along, doing what they’re expected to do having never figured out who they are. I always wondered what “I want to find out who I am” meant. Now I think I know what it means.
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