Comments on: What is happiness?

By: Monica Villarreal

Monica Villarreal — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:52:50 +0000

Happiness to me signifies a euphoric Peace of Mind example when we find the ability to control our thoughts in our mind a state of complete self sustaining contentment. When we accept who we are and disregard all false fallicies media and society has intented for us to follow. When we say to ourselves “Its okay I make mistakes and I will make more tomorrow but I accept myself and have a peace of mind of acceptance to who I am.”
Happiness is when we can truly accept the fortunes and misfortunes on this world and have a peace of mind. Happiness is accepting the beauty of who and what we will become.

By: eleonora

eleonora — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:43:58 +0000

penso alla felicita’ come ad uno stato di grazia.Ogni giorno,ogni attimo vive le sue felicita’e le sue tristezze.E’ vero, per ognuno di noi la felicita,’ non e’rapprasentata dalla stessa cosa,o emozione.A me piace viverla come quell’implosione ed esplosione d’amore,data da tutto cio’ che la provoca.

By: Jodi Liddle

Jodi Liddle — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:18:14 +0000

Today I did a similar thing.
I walked the streets of my home city Cape Town today, Sunday, observing the life around me.
The buildings, the streets, the businesses, the lights, the flower sellers, the beggars, the car guards, the young adults, the elderly, the children with their parents, the children without any parents, the pavements, the air, the smells, the sounds, the voices, the information scattered around in pieces that, when put together, reveal a magical puzzle of history, reality and destiny.
I have no spouse, no house, a financial savings of about 1000 South African Rand, I work part time and study part time. Today was a day of love, peace, joy, faith, hope, youth, wisdom, learning, teaching, singing, dancing, writing, imagination. Alone in my city, I was happy because I felt alive. I felt life, within me and all around me. :)
I have faith in humanity, and I believe with patient encouragement even the most conservative, unquestioning, and blinded souls will too discover the true joys of living.

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:05:26 +0000

A balanced life makes me the happiest. When our needs are all met, we are truly happy for as long as all our needs are met. the difficulty is, we don’t always know what our needs are, so we have to experiment and go in search of the ingredients in our own lives that gives us fulfilment. I believe that quite often the thing that we lacked in our childhood and the thing that we loved in our childhood both have the most potential to make us happy. If we were bullied in school, popularity will make us happy in adult life. If we came from a poor family, wealth and money will make us happy in adult life. If we loved to dance as children, then dancing will make us happy in adult life. I think also, we need to have human connection and love and support… without those crucial ingredients, we can never be happy. For the people who are not able to accept love (because their childhood did not teach them that they were worthy of being loved just as they are and for no reason other than just because they do deserve love) happiness will be the hardest to find of all. The ability to forgive is also vital to happiness. If we do not have the skill of forgiveness yet, we will carry all the anger and pain that we have ever been given around with us and even during times of celebration, we will not be happy.

So I think it is this that makes us happy:

Loving respectful healthy relationships
Having all of our individual specific needs met (physical, mental, emotional, health, moral, cultural, spiritual, freedom, time, self-control) We must learn about ourselves to know what we need first
Ability to give and accept love and healthy level of self esteem
Ability to heal past wounds with forgiveness of ourselves and others and also the world and God
Someone special to share our happiness with

By: Dave C

Dave C — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:16:47 +0000

Happoness seems most often described as a responce to stimulus. If there is a positive response to a stimulus, there would need be a negative one as well ? Waxing poetically,high, after much drink, and feel the pain, low, the next day. Is there a true state of stablness, contentment, or complete satisfaction, maybe bliss, that is available for us to grasp, to accept, to acknowledge, to simply surrender to ? Does this exist here and now, prior to action, prior to thought, prior to prior? Could we already be there?

By: Ilsa

Ilsa — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:49:47 +0000

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, thy make the best of everything.”

By: krishi

krishi — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 21:28:28 +0000

happiness truely lies in somthing which gives us total satisfaction irrespective of ones worth in the eyes o oda…bt smtyms mind is soo pre occupied with so many things its jus difficult thing to realise wat makes one truely happy n contented…and smtimes its also confusing tat if a particular thing is actually making us happy or we are jus finding a way to escape the confrontation of a situation by accepting something contrary to it in the name of happiness…we sometyms tend to do it unknowingly…hw do we realise wer our true happiness lies without tryino escape from anything we do not wanna face…pls reply :)

By: LavenderBlonde

LavenderBlonde — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:57:00 +0000

This is a great thought.

By: Priya

Priya — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:59:14 +0000

This is my most favourite post out of all the others. Your blog is wonderful Mr. Paulo!

Happiness is a feeling that comes and stays for a moment, and in that moment you are in a state of “I want nothing else more”. For example, you get a desire to eat chocolate ice cream now. You go get it from your freezer. While you are eating there is a split second of moment in which your mind is in the state of “completeness” and “wanting nothing else”. But that only stays for a split second, after that it goes away. Then you go on to fulfilling your next desire. The desires keep on continuing and extending on to career, family, children, etc,.

However, all these are impermanent happiness. There is a value for happiness in our lives because we think it makes our life complete. Or else we are plagued with the feeling of insecurity. So the problem is notional. I think I am unhappy unless I do this or do that. However, in deep sleep I am completely at peace with MYSELF. Think about it. In deep sleep, there is no happiness, no sorrow, no problems, nothing is there, except MYSELF. I am in peace with MYSELF. When we wake up in the morning we can say for sure that we had a “good” sleep. Meaning we felt good about being in peace with ourselves.

This means that one CAN be happy with just one self. Mr. Paulo, you should explore more about this in Indian Philosophy. It addresses the questions of happiness and what more is there in life other than achieving this transitory happiness. Whatever I just said in the above paragraphs is a small glimpse into Indian philosophy called Vedanta.

~Priya~

By: Bogdan

Bogdan — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 23:05:41 +0000

in this moment of my life, i think, that happiness should be the last sensation leaving this world. Its long and difficult process to arrive to it, but i think its the meaning of life: to be happy dying.
Be happy to know to leave some sign: new creatures which will not be only #working robots#,
Be happy to be helpfull

And to be happy to win the war with #money & power# :) Its the big thing in western culture to win it.

By: Berni

Berni — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:49:12 +0000

What is happiness? It is a very good question!! And like Paulo, I don’t think that I know how to answer it. However, I do not consider myself happy.
As people may say, I should be as I have everything that a person can dream of (a nice flat, a good work, I am in good health, true friends, my family is fine despite the normal material problems of life). We can say that I should not complain as I am in a far better situation than a lot of people in this world.
However, I am missing one thing that is most important than the rest for me: I am missing LOVE. I am talking about true love. I am missing to be loved in return by the person I love.
At this stage, the rest does not matter. I can take one day after another and try to enjoyed it at the maximum (Carpe Diem) but deeply, it appears all fake.
I don’t think this is the right answer (if there is any right answer) to the question “What is happiness?” I don’t know if the day I find true love I will be happy but for the moment, despite all the luck I have in life, it is what I am missing.

By: Cristina

Cristina — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:58:53 +0000

Since I, personally, cannot recall one period in my life when I thought of myself as being completely happy (ecept, maybe, for the birth of my son, yet now I would rather describe it as a moment of ecstasy rather then happiness) I have long ago relegated the issue of happiness among those things which, like the true nature of God, will only be revealed after the passage into the other realm. And yet, I wonder. Maybe those people who keep moving and don’t stop to think, maybe they do have the secret of true happiness. Maybe the peasant who labors his field, watches the crop grow and ripe, harvests it in due time, sells some, keeps some, starts preparing the next crop the day he finished harvesting the current one, his wife who bears children, rears them and waits for them to take care of her in her old age, while she will tell stories from other times to her grandchildren, maybe they really know the secret, and maybe our intelectual habits of doubting and questioning keep us from reaching it. Maybe happiness only exists in total simplicity, and by wanting and trying to grasp it, to understand and explain it, we just lose it. I wonder.

By: Kamal

Kamal — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:08:17 +0000

The most important things in life aren’t things” as said by Anthony J. D’Angelo…” Life is to be lived….. do not squander time!

By: Alexander

Alexander — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 15:59:44 +0000

True happiness comes from inner peace. Inner peace comes along with the knowledge of how this world goes, how important and essential harmony is, while also knowing that every single creature has its very own mission to complete. People have such a strong fear deep inside their hearts because they lack of knowledge. People always feared what they didn’t know. The Courage to research the inner darkness is the first step to inner peace. How could someone possibly be happy at all while not knownig what life is, who he is, what the meaning of his life is?

You don’t have to know the answers to above mentioned questions, but you have to go this path of harmony to find out, that is what makes true happiness. To know your life is a sacrifice (holy work) for the higher goal and you are a very important part of it. In fact, your part in the work of god was entrusted especially to you, not without reason…

Best Regards

–Alex–

By: Nyomi

Nyomi — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:00:05 +0000

I think happiness is a state of mind. It’s the absence of feeling sad, angry, jealous or another negative emotion. Happiness is feeling upbeat/joyful/content/excited/ ecstatic/at peace/content or another very pleasant emotion.

By: eleonora

eleonora — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:42:07 +0000

da quando ero piccola ,ho dato un volto diverso alla felicita’.Ho scoperto che lei veste quasi sempre un sogno non realizzato…ora penso che avendo la salute ,ogni giorno puo’nascondere in se’ felicita’.Un incontro inaspettato.,il rivedere degli amici,il vedere gli altri felici,tutto cio’che racchiude il mistero della creazione.mi piacerebbe non dover dipendere dal denaro,condividere piu’ momenti con menti pensanti,parlare senza dover guardare l’orologio.dare valore al tempo ,perche’ solo cosi si apprezza tutto cio’che e’ racchiuso nel tempo,amore compreso.

By: Marisela Corona Anaya

Marisela Corona Anaya — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:34:38 +0000

This is such a simple word and complex at the same time! My daugther is the one who asked me that question few years ago and it came together with the I don’t see you smile almost never what makes you happy??? I told her to give me some time to answer and after I reflex few days on it. I was very humble and honest about it. from them on I have been smiling more and making them part of what makes me happy. A sunraise, sunset, walking, observing nature, being with them and by myself… A simple moment with God.

By: Oskar

Oskar — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:10:25 +0000

I do not know what happiness exactly is…. but I feel happy when I can do something which makes someone else feel happy.

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:31:44 +0000

i do that 2 at any time.. i drink my Tchae in a pyramid shape without the honey ,,,however it does taste like honey. I am so lucky in the silence with my soul,searching this bring a big smile on my face. I am on a good deal with my smiles points, travelling wise.

By: breezy

breezy — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:49:12 +0000

we are sharing the same moments:)I too feel the hopefull beauty of my happiness…

By: Natalia

Natalia — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:32:52 +0000

Happiness: when I sit silently in my room, it is very early morning, everybody of my family is still sleaping. I sit and slowly drink fresh green tea with honey. And I think:HOW HAPPY I AM! HOW BEAUTIFUL MY LIFE IS….

By: lee

lee — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:32:36 +0000

Happiness is truth, honesty trust and humbleness!

By: Maktub

Maktub — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:05:55 +0000

personally “happiness” is not a spoken words but simply inner peace with an awe.

By: Rienz

Rienz — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:19:40 +0000

hello everyone!! I don’t know exactly how to feel REALLY happy. I guess i have felt happy, but for such brief moments only.. I have this longing inside me to “embrace” the world. To “touch” as many person as possible, and every culture in every country.. But I have no Idea on how to realize this longing.. It’s as if i am not complete and I need to “merge” or be “part”

By: Charmie

Charmie — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:32:24 +0000

“The secret of happiness is to see the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon.” ~ The Wisest of Wise Men, The Alchemist

Thank you for this! :)

By: riya

riya — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:15:07 +0000

Sir Coelho,
It is cery true that to define happiness is impossible, cause it means different things to different people. One can always be unhappy and keep worrying about things in life. But that doesn’t actually help living the life. My point is that there is no such thing called happiness or unhappiness. We plan certain things in our head and decide to become happy once they are done. But to think for a while what would happen to a world if people did not bother to be happy and work to achieve the so called ‘happiness’, will the human life cycle come to end?
I tried to be satisfied and happy with my life and soon found that I had no desire left for anything. I didn’t want to shop, didn’t feel the need for a job or a bigger home or a vacation because I was happy. And then life was stagnant…still I was happy but with a sense of emptiness. So I believe being happy all the time doesn’t help much…does it?

By: BlindGirl

BlindGirl — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:37:20 +0000

I’m still young and I can say I am happy. I am constantly happy and I do not need a lot of things for it. Just to feel the happiness of my kid growing, just to catch a shiny old-lady smile under an umbrella while photographing…

I never had great regrets in life (I see choices as consequences of different factors and assuming them on the path of my own evolution, seeing where I can get further)…I was sad for short periods while I separated from my best friend/ I had to leave the kid to grandparents (but happy seeing him happy there), I saw the picture of that kid starving and that eagle waiting… that impressed me to the point of a small depression from witch I yield for help and came back changed…I also got depressed when the doctor said she won’t accept any more money as she “does not know if she can save my child.”

But in the end all experience enriches us, I end up quite hedonistic, trying to make my best out of my life experience by enjoying it on the go, not fixing material/spiritual goals… just living it every minute. (I’m happy for the rain and for the sun, for the birds and for the grass and even when sadness and tragedies will be all around me I hope I’ll still have the strength to pursue my happiness and find it in some small thing… maybe I’ll die crazy, but I surely die happy :)… have you ever seen the pure happiness in the eyes of a pure but mad people -from the real sanatorium of mental illnesses- eating some food directly from the ground?)

I love smiling to people on street, and I do not want to catch the typical Romanian tragic way of living in sadness everyday…

Even if am sad when I see so much sadness and stupidity, poverty, sufferance, overall, while drawing the line of my existence I consider myself really really happy :) Of course we could do more, but we all are trying to do our best in each condition, we are not perfect, we do mistakes, but life goes on.. there are simply surprising lessons to learn each day while enjoying the essence of life. Right now I’m remembering my kid happy and I’m smiling imagining the moment we will be together tomorrow… The happiness is what you keep in your heart from your experiences, that overrides all sadness if you know to write it with your heart opened like a child.

By: mary anne mahinay

mary anne mahinay — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:59:34 +0000

then Happiness is a journey?

By: Princess

Princess — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:17:50 +0000

The moment one becomes aware of their happiness and doubts it, it is gone. Like breathing. It’s natural. But the moment one becomes aware, it becomes something they have to work on.

By: Leena Joynat

Leena Joynat — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:21:00 +0000

This is a very interesting blog, while I was reading it I couldn’t help but think about meditation and mindfulness. A book that I have been reading about meditation explains that we are all switched onto atuo-pilot mode, so we’re never really engaged or aware of what we are doing. For example simple actions like brushing our teeth becomes automatic, we use this time to think about the day ahead, or what to eat for breakfast, what will I do first at work, should I buy some groceries afterwards. This “mindlessness” keeps us in a state of constant anxiety, worry, fear, fantasy. I think when we are truely happy, we can be mindful, engage ourselves in the moment, so that brushing our teeth is brushing our teeth, thinking about just that! If we practice that with much of what we are doing, thinking about what happiness means becomes more of an action than a thought, we engage ourselves with everything we do and we start to feel more, rather than think more. This helps us attain long-term and short term happiness because we become engage with our lives, the people around us and with ourselves.