What is happiness? Do you know, do you think I know? I probably don’t, but I have an idea on how to look for it. How to foster that feeling.

Let’s start with what people assume happiness is. Most think that if a person has an upbeat attitude with a smile on their face, then they are happy. We have all seen that person who walks about with a smile always on their face. When you ask them how they’re doing, they always reply with “great”. This in return torments you, making you feel stupid you even asked. They act as if this is their normal state, and your questions were dumb. Of course, you never want to ask them how they are doing again, but you just want to ask them, “what are you constantly happy?”

Later, you find out it was all a lie, that they are actually heavily depressed or they have something horrible going on in their lives. You wonder, “how did I not see this?”. I will tell you, but first, let’s start with the legacy of happiness. Happiness is not constant smiles and upbeat attitudes. Ask those people who are constantly in those upbeat moods what is really going on. There could be more to their smile than meets the eye. I have experienced situations where people appeared to be very unhappy, but in fact, they were not and committed suicide.

Who is happy all the time? Comedians are known for making people laugh, but most of them experience depression. In fact, many of them can be found in the obituary, with a suicide note. Their happiness is a mask for what they are actually feeling. So this leads us to question, what is happiness?

Happiness is a normal feeling, not an exaggerated one. Being happy doesn’t mean there must always be a smile on your face, it is something that is true within. Happiness is an internal satisfaction from something. The question is, how do we reach that constant feeling of happiness? Can it be obtained?

“Happy” people, in many cases, are in denial. Most of the time those people are actually scared, they find it hard to trust people, and usually have some skeletons in the closet. They may seem happy on the outside, but they are likely feeling constant misery and fear. You can sometimes see someone going from extreme happiness to extreme anger or sadness. They tell these grand stories only to get a reaction from their audience giving them the ego boost they need.

Think about it, it’s easier for someone to share these grand stories than to face what is really happening in their lives.

Instead of taking responsibility for the things they have going on in their lives and change themselves, they choose to avoid it. Who wants to feel like a failure? Many people don’t understand or accept that they may need to work on themselves. Some would rather live in denial and constant fear. Making those changes can be hard to do, but it makes life more pleasant and easier, trust me on that. One day you may wake up and find yourself in a truly healthy and happy state of mine. You will finally feel that inner satisfaction that nothing can break, not traffic, not a bad mood, or your spouse. That is when you have found true happiness.