on being being happy

yesterday i attended a short presentation on being happy and how to achieve happiness. he gave us a few examples of what makes us happy and what makes us unhappy; having lots of money does not make you happy, but having more money than your neighbor does. having less money than your neighbor surely will make you unhappy if you dwell on it. getting into a great school makes you happy, but leaving all of your friends and family behind to attend this school makes you unhappy. but according to mr fong the number one thing that makes you happy is being able to do something that you love. for him that is corridor recovery after the flood. "the best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up." --mark twain

according to wikipedia, happiness is an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy. i think that short term bursts of happiness are more along the lines of intense joy and the overall state of happiness is contentment and satisfaction. for example if you were to get into a great school, your number one choice, more than likely you'll be feeling that intense joy and with that if everything was just going well for you lately then it's more of the contentment and satisfaction.

everyone wants to be happy but you can't just focus all your goals on being happy. you have to let happiness come to you, not you chase it. you can chase happiness all you want but it'll come faster once you stop chasing. if you're stuck feeling unhappy and don't know what to do to get yourself back on track try these nine steps to happiness. i seem to be on a wikipedia kick today so don't trust everything that i've linked to. it is wikipedia afterall.

warning: being happy all the time is not a good thing. for one, it annoys everyone around you. if you are always happy go lucky every single day of the year it gets old..fast. secondly, if you're always happy then it makes the low points seem even lower which then brings you down even more. this is why you have to take the good with the bad and have the smiles outweigh the tears. sometimes life just sucks but it does get better.