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**Intockatt** · 02-10-2011, 08:52 AM

your implied definition

I'm not proposing a definition of "happiness"(I don't have one) - I think the word has different meanings depending on the context and the individual. In general conversation we have a general sense of what the word may mean but when someone asks if the can be "truly happy" I have no way of knowing what it is that they consider happiness.

I could imagine a situation in which a person adopts, knowingly or unknowingly, a definition of "happiness" that would be frustrated most of the time and thereby consider themselves as "unhappy". Imagine a person who equates (and internalizes) "happiness" as that state of mind that is portrayed by the US advertising media around Christmastime with all the hype, all the overexagerated euphoria, etc - the result would be devastating because it has no basis in reality.

There are times that we feel elated and euphoric, whatever the reason, but we can't equate these experiences with "happiness" unless we are willing to be "unhappy" most of the time. Perhaps a feeling of equanimity, of being at peace with one's life, which could be more sustained, is closer to the concept I'm trying to describe.

02-10-2011, 08:52 AM	#12
Intockatt Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 653 Senior Member	your implied definition I'm not proposing a definition of "happiness"(I don't have one) - I think the word has different meanings depending on the context and the individual. In general conversation we have a general sense of what the word may mean but when someone asks if the can be "truly happy" I have no way of knowing what it is that they consider happiness. I could imagine a situation in which a person adopts, knowingly or unknowingly, a definition of "happiness" that would be frustrated most of the time and thereby consider themselves as "unhappy". Imagine a person who equates (and internalizes) "happiness" as that state of mind that is portrayed by the US advertising media around Christmastime with all the hype, all the overexagerated euphoria, etc - the result would be devastating because it has no basis in reality. There are times that we feel elated and euphoric, whatever the reason, but we can't equate these experiences with "happiness" unless we are willing to be "unhappy" most of the time. Perhaps a feeling of equanimity, of being at peace with one's life, which could be more sustained, is closer to the concept I'm trying to describe.
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