What is happiness?

We all say we want happiness, but what is your definition of happiness? Are you going to actually work for your happiness?

I believe that true happiness is a result of giving and not of receiving. This puts off many people from achieving it for their own. They don't want to make the personal sacrifices required to obtain it for themselves and of course all they can do is resent and hate those who have found it. "Remember it takes as much energy to be miserable as it does to be happy." Knowing this why would I want anything but to be happy? I found out that you need to decide what makes you happy and don't settle for anything less.

Genuinely happy people are different from everyone else; almost like the have some special trait or gene that passed up the rest of the population. Now I ask myself how is it that some people have this mentality and others do not. Can it be as simple as one chooses to simply be happy and not dwell on the negatives? Hmm…just a thought.

Personal happiness depends on the attitude you have decided to have towards life, towards others and especially toward yourself. For example, if you look at life as always knocking you down or never giving you a break…would you be happy? How about if you thought that you didn’t measure up to everyone else in life…your job wasn’t good enough, your house wasn’t big enough…is that happiness? I don’t think so. Appreciation of what we have relates to true happiness. It is very easy to look at what we don’t have instead of looking at what we do have. When we stop being grateful or thankful or appreciative, our entire emotional outlook suffers. Ungratefulness and lack of appreciation is a very ugly trait in someone, don’t you think?

Do you agree or not?

Now this is hard for me; the ability to forgive others and myself. If you know me; I have a hard time forgiving….more so myself. I make mistakes and I just focus on them and tear myself down. So I decided that I need to work on forgiving myself. I find it easier to forgive others because I rationalize their behaviors and actions; sometimes I just make excuses for them. At times I even chalk it up to they are ignorant and don't realize the impact of their behavior. Forgiving myself isn't as easy. I don’t want to rationalize my behavior or say that I am ignorant. Usually I state that I should have known my actions or behavior was going to turn out this way. Hmm….

Anyway, that is my thoughts about true happiness. I think. I mean I can list a lot of material items that can bring a smile to my face, but it is not true happiness.

What is your happiness?