Is being happy synonymous with happiness?

They are separate, but can also be synonymous. I’ve been on a rollercoaster in a state of indifference because it wasn’t thrilling, and I’ve had a very happy time on a rollercoaster.

I have been happy to not be unhappy. I have been happy to be safe, have food, shelter, clothing and protection but I didn’t have the type of value, respect, affection, interaction I wanted.

I have had fun while being in general misery. Off I went for a week with friends and family, knowing I’d soon return to my SO who was no fun to be with.

Actually extroversion is the one trait most associated with happiness and optimism. Anyone can work on finding happiness, but it does come easier to some temperaments than others. I am an optimist and feel happy and content the majority of the time. Activities, money flow and externals have little to do with it. I adapt accordingly and can find happiness in simple pleasures just as easily as big ticket adventures and exciting happenings.

I am happy, sitting at my laptop doing stats which I hate but I am happy. I feel good because I know I work hard and so will get to have fun when I am finished my masters and get some money so that I can put the heating on and eat better food! I am still happy though.
I think its hard to have fun and not be happy. Even if you are not happy, by doing fun things you eventually end up happy (I know this works for me anyway) but you can definitely be happy without having fun!

Let’s not confuse happiness with Self Actualization or contentedness. It is often used in a broad way. Are you happy? What makes you happy? Happy happy joy joy. But there are different terms that we could use to more clearly define what it is we’re referring to.

When I go on a roller coaster (a giant looping one preferably) I am “happy”. When I’m carrying my son after a long trick or treat walk and he looks up and says “I love you Dad” I am “happy”. The difference is, one is just a general emotion.. angry, sad, happy. The other reaches into the core of me and makes me joyful and content with how things are going in life.

I’ve just recently been thinking about this, specifically about our lack of agreement on what is meant by happiness.

My understanding is that happiness transcends momentary fluctuations in mood. It’s an underlying OK-ness that’s unperturbed by transient brain chemistry phenomena. Episodes of anger, sadness, fear, bliss, passion, etc. are just surface ripples on this deep ocean of OK-ness.

I think it’s easy to get caught up in the surface fluctuations, so that we’re always chasing after the moments of bliss and desperately trying to fend away the moments of sadness. But I think happiness is the skill of not getting sucked into that chasing and fleeing game, but just letting those states be, knowing that OK-ness is your fundamental condition.

I can definitely be happy and not be having fun. I can be happy just sitting outside looking at my backyard. Sometimes, I realize I am not in any pain, and I feel happy. I have moments of glee all the time when I am being thankful for aimple things.

If I am having fun I am usually feeling happy. Maybe not 100% of the time, but usually.

Happiness to me is the elite form of happy…but I don’t think happiness it truly sustainable for long periods of time. Happiness IMO is when something(s) make you so happy nothing else matters and even bad or icky things can’t bring you down. New loves, new jobs, new homes etc. Once things settle down happiness fades.

I am happy in my job but it is not my dream job. I am happy in my new home, but it is not my dream home. I am happy doing the things I do, but there are other things that I would love to do but I can’t. I am happy in my marriage but didn’t think it would take this much work and effort.

What he said @Cruiser: Happiness to me = Happy +

Happy and happiness, like love, are words that express such a wide array of emotions and activities they are impossible to pin down. It has to depend on the context.

Fun can lift you from a depression for the time the fun is going on, but the depression will still be there underlying it all. Similarly, you may be temporarily unhappy even though you are basically a happy person. Opposing emotions can exist at the same time but in different levels of your consciousness. Happiness is a longer state than happy, which may be of shorter duration. Happy is just the shorter adjective for the longer acting noun, happiness.
You can be happy without having fun. And you can have fun without being happy.

Feeling happy seems like a fleeting thing. I can find moments of happiness in simple things, the sunlight in the trees, a baby’s smile, a flower, a beautiful cloud, a good joke, a kind gesture. But happiness is more an overall feeling of well-being. To me it has to do with feeling content, feeling accepted, cherished, acknowledged, and secure. In my life when all those things come together I call it happiness.

Sales people and servers are never really happy to meet you or happy to give you their sales pitch. They say they are but the reality is that they are only happy when you purchase something and they get a commission or a good tip. So it isn’t always synonymous.

Abraham Lincoln said people are just about as happy as they want to be and I pretty much believe that. No one, no thing can “make” me happy, I must decide to be so and then just do it.

@Pandora Never? Wow. Sometimes I had wonderful interactions with people who didn’t buy anything from me. I never expected to sell to everyone I met.

I just now realized this isnt the question I meant to ask…