What makes you happy?

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I believe exercise evokes happiness. Or maybe it is merely setting goals and achieving them. The question is, "what is your dream?" Are you able to realize your aspirations. Some people seem to inherently know what it is they were sent here to do. Others search their whole lives and still fail to have their dreams realized. Maybe they just give up and lose sight of what it feels like to dream to fly. I see friends when they are down and out and I want to offer them happiness. I wish I was able to share the secret to enjoying the short time in which we occupy this world. It has to come with hard work and determination. I don't believe happiness is just granted. You get out what you put into it. We can all be happy if we only try. Am I right? What advise would you offer?

Replies

  • xraychick77
    xraychick77 Posts: 1,775 Member
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    either you are happy or you arent.

    i've come to the conclusion some people like to be unhappy.

    i am a pretty happy person. i have goals and i'm working right now to achieve them. one is to look like jillian michaels..lol..another is get another degree (enrolled in summer classes)...
  • anubis609
    anubis609 Posts: 3,966 Member
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    Sounds pretentious as all hell, but I make me happy. I've gone through a lot in my life and I've enjoyed every literal death defying moment of it. I shouldn't even be alive today. But I am. Because I believe I'm able to overcome anything without the regret of failure. Every failure is just as neutrally a lesson learned as success is. There is no positive or negative to me. Just results. Some favorable, some unfavorable to your expectations, but there's always an outcome. It just depends on the perspective you have on them.

    And I have an array of perspectives for any one situation. I believe in the equality of all things being fair in the state of unfairness; the simple within the complex; the harmony in chaos; so on, and so forth.

    So, if I had to offer advice to anyone about anything, would be to allow oneself to become selfish in the drive for motivation. Strive for the benefit of oneself, even if that means going against the grain of popular belief. Have patience in knowing that life has a way of balancing itself out.

    And most of all:

    m72930867.jpg
  • fitnessjch
    fitnessjch Posts: 449 Member
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    I agree that sometimes people just want to be unhappy. Dunno why. Also though, I know from experience how hard it is to get stuck in a rut of unhappiness.

    I think acceptance is the key.

    1) Worrying is like a rocking chair - gives you something to do, but doesnt get you anywhere. Therefore why worry - cross that bridge when you come to it.
    2) When something bad happens, dont wallow in it - accept it and move on. Its hard, but you cant change what has happened in the past, so just accept it and move on.

    By the age of 13, I had no grandparents left, at 13 also, a good friend of mine died. At 17, my Mum died of cancer. I went through a lot of years of thinking that there are axe murderers out there that are in jail and still have their mums, what have I done to deserve this! Then I learnt to accept what happened, enjoy the happy memories, and to realise that I had the best mum in the world for 17 years, which is more than some people have.

    What I love doing now is enjoying new things - have travelled China, Thailand, Oz, NZ, America, part of Europe. I LOVE trying new things (well, I used to before I got fat!) like climbing, jet skiing, parasailing etc - that and my man is what makes me happy :)
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,311 Member
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    I am not someone who is naturally happy. I am too much of a realist. There are things I like doing, singing, running, photography...but I will always wish I was better at them. I am one of those people who is never satisfied with where I am, I need to do more, be better. I know I am good at singing, really good, but I am never quite happy with how I sound. I can pick holes in anything.
    Seeing my children being sweet makes me happy, but they aren't sweet very often! Mostly they are argumentative and loud and aggressive. I think small boys often are.

    I don't think happiness is that affected by external things, actually. I was happy when our house flooded and we were living in a building site with no ground floor, no hot water or heating, no oven, or fridge or running water downstairs, I was having to look after a 2 year old and a baby, cook on a camping stove, wash up in bowls of cold water in the garden. That stuff didn't bother me, because the important things were in place. I was happier then than I am now. Sometimes it being a struggle just to get through each day physically means there isn't time for THINKING about being unhappy.
  • lestahling
    lestahling Posts: 36
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    I definately think exercise/eating well really helps - endorphins and other parts of body chemistry that I don't quite know the science of, but it works for me, so I'll keep doing it.

    But I think it all boils down to having a goal and working on it. I think people are meant to do things with their lives and if we don't do anything we can stagnate and become unhappy.
  • Sonofabiscuit2
    Sonofabiscuit2 Posts: 323 Member
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    Despite losing my mom at 5 and suffering abuse from a step my mother, i was a happy person. I was until late 20's when I suffered from a mild depressive disorder related to my hypogonadism. I've had to relearn happiness, I also discovered that someone in my life wa s not conducive to that end as she was my negative nancy. Now I say things like "it's a good day because I woke up breathing" or I find something to be happy about today. I have asked my kiss to tell me about their day at school and then to tell me just one good thing that happened, its about focusing on the good in life.
  • Sonofabiscuit2
    Sonofabiscuit2 Posts: 323 Member
    Options
    Despite losing my mom at 5 and suffering abuse from a stepmother, I was a happy person. I was until my late 20's when I suffered from a mild depressive disorder related to my hypogonadism. I've had to relearn happiness, I also discovered that someone in my life was not conducive to that end as she was my negative nancy. Now I say things like "it's a good day because I woke up breathing" or I find something to be happy about today. I have asked my kids to tell me about their day at school and then to tell me just one good thing that happened, its about focusing on the good in life.