I’m a Big fan of your site. I think happiness is a combination of the things you mentioned and productivity. At the end of the day, we all to accomplish something. If we have a tendency to be unmotivated or uninspired, we will become depressed.

To me, this is the opposite of Happiness. We simply have to get busy doing what we love to do.

Thanks for your post.

I think happiness comes from remaining in the present moment and not getting too lost in the past or future. And I do think that happiness does come from within, and by seeking happiness within first, it has a way of reflecting and changing our outside world too.

Happiness, to me, is all of those things that you mention. It also means losing track of time, because that’s when I know that I’m fully engaged in the present moment, and doing something positive and enjoyable, either with others or alone.

Happiness is also being aware of my decisions, and when I’ve chosen for the good; for example, if I’m in a store and there is a child with its mother, and something happens where the child’s response strikes me as particularly sweet, or loving, or demonstrates good behavior, I can just observe it and keep going about my business, or I can tell the child “What a nice little person you are!”, and compliment the mom on that. Who wouldn’t want to hear those things? It makes me happy to treat others the way I would want to be treated. And if they react negatively or not at all, it doesn’t subtract from me, or my willingness to do those things again.