How is it possible to be happy in life (and I'm not talking only about laughing)?

Is anyone truly happy 100% of the time, we all have our moments of happiness , and contentment ,but life throws challenges at us that sometimes we wish we had a nuke em all button at the ready.

As long as one exists in Samsara then happiness will always be temporary.

I think our happiness is somewhat based on our expectations. If we expect to be healthy and wealthy and wise and don’t succeed, we feel like we missed on something somehow. Often I think people tie their happiness to things. We dwell on what we don’t have and not on what we have.

As asked, the answer would depend on which of the endless possible meanings of “possible to be happy in life” one considers.

The eternal question. Happiness is a word more suited to fairy tales. The real world insists on more sober goals — perhaps contentment. And it frequently appears to me that there is this suspicious retlationship of contentment to things like ambition and intellect. To this day, whenever this question pops up I’m thrown back to my youth and commercials declaring Carnation the domain of contented cows. I can’t remember my age when it first occurred to me to speculate on just what might be required to endow a cow with contentment, but the issue popped out up often enough that it was a great relief to discover that the Greeks had dealt considerably with the question (to no apparent avail). And now decades down the line, I remain uncertain as to the cow or myself when it comes to which has the better deal, but I’ll settle for my lot. I think it’s the satisfaction around a good hamburger that clenches the issue. Happiness indeed.

No mater how much you have, you always want more.

@kritiper: Are you speaking to me, or to the world in general?

Happiness is within us, or we can create our own. Happiness like a child is naturally eroded by life experience imo, when I see that in teens I both envy them and feel sorry for them, because they don’t know how bad it can be usually.

@luigirovatti The world in general, including yourself.

Happiness, is a cruel mistress. Take the first step, and show initiative. Go forth, and do something you like/used to like to do. Stop worrying about the things you can’t control, relax, go with the flow, and everything will start to fall in place, exactly where you need it to be.