I think that most of us know that happiness doesn't come in a bottle (pills or booze). People abuse for a temporary escape. If you get drugs from a doctor it's called "treatment".

We are complex individuals. What makes us happy? We want love and acceptance from people around us. We need to feel security. We want to feel that our lives have some direction and point. We want to feel a sense of purpose. That just names a few.

It seems to be a simple concept, but a difficult reality for may of us to be truly happy. Many have found peace with religion. I do not have any religious bias, therefore no understanding of the concept.

How do you attain true happiness?

I feel that happiness is very individual and is based on the experiences and needs of each person examining their life.

For example, my idea of happiness involves my family and how well they are doing, how financially secure I am (to avoid the anxiety of not meeting our basic needs such as housing, food and transportation), the ability to spend some time with my "men" (hehehehe), time to relax and focus on myself. We have pretty simple needs at my house.

Happiness, if I would have to write a definition, is the emotion a person feels when their emotional, mental, spiritual and physical needs are met or exceeded.

The question is, of course, "How do you attain Happiness?"

Again, this is totally individual... my way of attaining happiness is probably fairly simplistic compared to many people. I feel that "happiness" doesn't just happen, it has to be worked at and earned. You need to prioritize what in your life is important to focus on and eliminate those stressors that are less important in your over-all environment.

One way to happiness is to identify what is truly important in your life, focus on those issues. Everything else are distractors that divert you from your goal.

Happiness, I think, is somewhat over rated. By that I mean that we all too often look for the ideal life, found only in movies or the like. We look to examples that are scripted, unreal. There are so many outside factors in our lives that directly impact us that we can't possibly find true happiness, but what we can do is set certain conditions for ourselves as to how we deal with those outside factors and how much we let them control our reactions.
There are so many aspects to my life that I find fulfilling, that make me happy, and I try to separate those things from the events in my life that make my life, or my families lives hard. It isn't easy, but it does make the good things seem that much sweeter, and I am able to appreciate the smaller things in life.
I think of my family and all the difficulties we've been through but I try not to dwell on them.
I know it isn't fair to compare my life with others, as one tends to do. It could be better, happier, but it could also be so much worse, so I throw the rocks that life gave me into one box, and the flowers that life gave me into another. I take time out of my day to smell the flowers, and I use the rocks to build a foundation from which the flowers may someday grow.

Some things might include solitude, writing and the gathering of new data and insight. Yet these in themselves are not a guarantee - most times they work, sometimes they feel trivial.
People rarely work, though there have been those exceptions who are so pervasive to my fictional reality that I spend hours in rapt attention or debate and wish for more time.
There are the fictional people of creation(insanity?) that fill the time of solitude, their lives ever active wherever I am - they are a joy, the pure pleasure of existence. If I grew despondent over the wish to share them with the world, I have once again found the pure pleasure and happiness without regards to external approval.
Certain authors offer happiness, however brief and temporary I realize it will be as I open to the first page - my hope is that Terry Pratchett will write faster so I don't have to keep rereading William Manchester. As long as the book doesn't betray the realities of our world, which so many do, I will devour it with a facinated devotion and pure bliss (that is for those books that proclaim to be of this world.)
Multi-play computer games can work, but I have lost some of the happiness as they turned their direction to the "graphic" violence without troubling to improve the level of fun.
And a few others, Answerpool included. The people on here seem very saavy and bright (okay, almost all of them.)
If happiness is not a constant, it's value offsets the other times.

I was very unhappy with no religion. And I hated the thought of religion. Even the word has kind of a negative feel to it. In the mid 80's, while pursuing a career in rock 'n roll music, I encountered some of the most sincere people I'd ever known. One guy claimed he had kicked his drug-habit, his alchohol habit and his obesity problem all from his practice of Buddhism and daily chanting of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Forever a skeptic, I didn't jump into it, but to make a long story short, I've now been chanting daily for 18 years. It makes me very happy, and has opened up my life so that I could achieve things that didn't seem possible - and that brought me much happiness. It's not the kind of happiness that is dependent upon what your peers think, or how nice your yard looks or how many pairs of shoes you have, or . . . well, you get the picture. If this sounds at all interesting to you, there is a web site to check out: www.sgi-usa.org. If not, good luck on your path to happiness. It IS where you are going.

Julia, my brother agrees with your point of view. He has visited many different Christian religions. He has personal beliefs and is not a member of any church. He feels that it has given him inner peace and happiness. I am not a religious person. I don't understand the concept of how religion and happiness can work. My brother tries very hard to convince me. There must be something I am missing. What is it and why?

Wildflower,
To me, the western ideologies place the power outside of our grasp . . . forever illusive. Even though you are not religious, you are influenced by this western view. The Buddhism I mention does not tell you what to believe. (You are unique.) But to try as an experiment to add chanting to your life and see what transpires. See if you feel that something is very different, even better. It gives you the greatest ideas on what actions to take in your life - to be true to yourself and be happy. This is all available within yourself and the chanting taps into this ability that is there, but not often used. Enough said. Only if this feels like the right time to try something like this. Go to the web site, if so, and make a contact in your area; ideally attend meetings on a regular basis. By the way, if you do, your brother might not like it. My brother is a strict Christian and thinks I'm doomed to hell. Meanwhile, I'm leading a fulfilled life, and I'm not done yet!

I derive my greatest happiness by trying to make others happy.

Juan, your trying to make others happy is so apparent in you.

I am happiest with clarity: Clear about who I am and who others are. And when circumstances are clear between people.

Also, I am happy supporting people and sharing whatever information I received.

Happiness is a warm gun....

Sorry, not really, I get possessed by the Beatles every once in a while and lyrics start popping out like pez on a tight spring.

For me, happiness springs eternal from 3 sources.

Love
Clarity of Thought
and the ever elusive, Hope.

Love is simple to explain. I admit, perhaps with a bit of reluctance initiated by by fierce independant streak, that I need it to be able to completely express and experiance life, and myself.

Clarity of Thought is many things. At heart, I can only say that I am an artist. It sounds arrogant to me when I say it, but I can't deny the truth of it. I am driven with a passion to create things of beauty which exceeds....well...everything. I act. I paint. I draw. I write. I photograph. I crochet, and weave, and make pottery and recycled treasures....I MUST create. If my eyes were put out and my voice burned away and my hearing destroyed, I would still have the need. Yet without Clarity of Thought, I can not create. It is in those moments, when for me, misery is complete.

The last, and most difficult, is hope. I've never given up completely on anything. I refuse to be bitter. I keep struggling even when I want to pause eternally in the quiet, snow drenched forest Robert Frost once spoke of so whistfully. When I existed in the dark times without Love and without Clarity, I clung to Hope...and through that, I was able to regain the things which I needed for happiness.

All very good advice. I once came across a definition of happiness that I liked: "Happiness is a mental state wherein the mind is occupied the majority of the time with pleasant thoughts."
I believe if you can control your thoughts you can find true happiness whatever happens to you.

Catty (who learned this from her mother)

Happiness is when you am satisfied with yourself. But you have to have realistic standards. The perfectionists is never happy. If your standards don't adapt you will not be happy. If you find yourself wheelchair bound for instance you may not be able to keep the same standard and remain happy. Of course adapting is easy to say and maybe impossible to do.

I attain happiness in peace with God.

I also take happiness in helping others.