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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2009 10:37:02 GMT
If you start searching the net for the definition of happiness, it is nearly impossible to find a satisfactory answer. If you start searching your soul, it is hardly any better.
It appears, however, that the only way to figure out exactly what happiness represents to you is to examine unhappiness, which is a much easier item to find. So many things fit into the category of unhappiness. Just about anything negative can create it: lack of love, hunger, poverty, health problems, bad neighbors, boredom, lost treasures, misunderstandings, broken appliances, unremovable stains, evil politicians, crying children, an overcooked roast, a bad hair day, a punch in the nose, a fabulous book that is too short, a dead pet.... the list absolutely seems endless.
You would think that once you have evacuated all of the elements that can make you unhappy, whatever is left over must be happiness.
But it just doesn't work that way.
So... do you have any ideas about what happiness is?
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2009 11:06:39 GMT
hmmm...that's got me thinking Kerouac.
The times I am happy, there must be reasons for them, as well as the times I feel unhappy.
Happiness is an inner contentment, and that can come from many different things. Really, those of us who don't live in poverty, or have no need to be hungry, have a roof over our heads, have healthy children, have someone who loves us are the lucky ones. And yet, we can still find reasons not to be happy.
I look at my life and realize that I have all those things that I listed, so I should be really happy. And yet, I let the little things in life put a damper on the huge amounts of really good things that I have. In another words, I, probably like many others, are spoilt.
How about you Kerouac, what is happiness to you?
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Post by lola on May 23, 2009 13:07:38 GMT
Happiness is picking strawberries in my garden at dawn, humming "Melancholy Baby", smelling the honeysuckle and roses, and pondering the meaning of happiness. (No, too cutesy.)
Happiness is right conduct, right livelihood, the rest of those Buddhist things, attention to duty. (No, too pompous.)
Aw, heck. I don't know.
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Post by rikita on May 24, 2009 20:10:22 GMT
the other times i took some drugs, and they made me feel very happy. then my body couldn't deal with them and i felt sick and really unhappy. then i sobered up and felt somewhere in the middle between the two.
but well, i guess being happy all the time just doesn't work, you can't be high all the time... you can be content all the time i guess if you make yourself aware of how good you have it, but being happy still is something for special moments...
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2009 20:40:02 GMT
I have been happy during some of my travels, more rarely so back in my real life.
That is not to say that I am unhappy, but I just know that something much better is possible.
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Post by hwinpp on May 25, 2009 3:22:01 GMT
Sounds corny but I'm happy when my girlfriend is happy.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2009 3:30:26 GMT
I don't think it sounds corny at all. It touches on something I feel too when loved ones seem happy.
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Post by gyro on May 26, 2009 13:19:50 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2009 17:57:46 GMT
Yes, I'm happy when my kids are happy. Also happiness is: kissing and cuddling someone I love. A perfectly warm sunny day. I'll be SO happy when all my painting and renovations are done. Going out with friends for the day and having a laugh. When my hair looks just right. When my lawn has just been freshly mowed. It looks so beautiful, that makes me happy. When my kids give me a hug and say I love you. Sitting out on the back deck watching the sunset on a mid-summers day.
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Post by rikita on May 26, 2009 21:12:50 GMT
yesterday when i was cycling to work i suddenly realized i was happy. the reasons i guess were: the weather was really nice, and i was on my bike, cycling as fast as i could without anyone in my way. i had just been to the bank and found out i am finally back in black numbers. i had woken up early that day and somehow had got lots and lots of stuff done. i only worked for three hours that day, so i was going to see the various kids i hadn't seen in a while (as i didn't work last week), yet not stay there long enough for it to really feel like work. and my stomach was finally starting to feel fine again.
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Post by happytraveller on May 27, 2009 9:48:45 GMT
I don't know how to define happiness but I know that I am not very happy today.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2009 9:50:06 GMT
And here I have been counting on you all along as the one person who could tell us about happiness!
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Post by lagatta on May 27, 2009 10:39:40 GMT
Happiness is fleeting by its nature, and rarely perfect. But I am also very happy when riding my bicycle, especially now when the leaves are bright spring green and everything looks new - living in a place with long, bitter winters, which I hate (no, I'm not a masochist, there are many other pleasant things about Montréal and there is no other place where I'd live in North America). I looked very nice yesterday - like deyana, happy that everything seemed to "click", and a gentleman smiled at me in the sweetest way.
And very small things - finding perfect berries at the market or having a neighbour give me a basket of pears from his tree (I live in La Petite Italie and there are many fruit trees, also vines, though the grapes aren't very good in this climate). And yesterday I bought a nice, shaped for women t-shirt in a beautiful steel grey, looked brand new, at a charity shop for $3 - and two "GEO" magazines in German for 50 cents apiece at the same place, nice to leaf through things like that to painlessly pick up some vocabulary, though I'd never buy them new here as even in Europe they cost about 10€ ...
There are some moments of pure happiness when travelling, which is after all one of the reasons we do it. These can't be planned. One day in May in Italy (it was my birthday, yep I was born around this time of year, though of course too old to be happy about birthdays any more) I was in Assisi with a friend - we were studying in nearby Perugia - enjoying a pizza and a glass or three of vino and some fizzy water, on a terrasse overlooking a field below, that was utterly filled with red poppies.
I
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Post by happytraveller on May 27, 2009 10:58:12 GMT
And here I have been counting on you all along as the one person who could tell us about happiness! That's probably because I am not travelling Kerouac !
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2009 11:00:43 GMT
lagatta, living in Montreal would make me happy. I love the city.
I just realized that all the things that make me really happy cost nothing.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2009 12:06:16 GMT
Oh HT, I am crushed! I too,thought if anyone could tell us ,it would be you. My day is ruined and I just woke up after a dismal day. Travel to the coffee machine or water cooler please and do get back to us on this. Go get an ice cream cone,anything!
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Post by happytraveller on May 27, 2009 13:02:39 GMT
Pain killer might be better, I've been having a nasty head ache since yesterday evening ! Might be able to tell you all about happiness tomorrow
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2009 13:31:47 GMT
Happy with a headache, hope it is fleeting.
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Post by happytraveller on May 27, 2009 17:52:15 GMT
Thanks Casimira, since I am home I am feeling a bit better. Should be happynontraveller again tomorrow ;D
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2009 17:56:22 GMT
Wonderful! We need more happiness.
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