Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

When was the last time you were truly happy?

88 replies

Bellabluea · 07/02/2021 06:02

Just that feeling of utter contentment and joy.
I just realised that I haven’t felt it in years.
That’s sad isn’t it?
I’m not depressed as such. Just empty and not happy.
I think I felt it when my youngest were babies. We had no time to ourselves and I barely slept but they just brought me so much joy.
I can’t image having that feeling again.

OP posts:

BooseysMom · 07/02/2021 06:24

That's funny as we were asking ourselves this just the other day. I'd say the only time I can remember being truly happy was when I was pregnant with DS (once I'd recovered from the initial shock!) and the first 2 years of being a mum. So I feel the same as you. I wanted so much to have that feeling again and I'm so sad and depressed knowing it never will. All I try and do is focus on the lovely times we had but it does mean I live mostly in the past.

PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle · 07/02/2021 07:24

Yesterday!
Just finished making myself a dress. I've done basic dressmaking for a while and as a Christmas present I was given a book on how to design, make and adjust your own patterns. I did practice designs with old sheets, decided what style fitted me best and then chose the material. I lost weight since the first lockdown so I was really proud to see myself in a dress that I have styled and made in a colour that suits me and fits me so well.
I'm really thrilled!

SnuggyBuggy · 07/02/2021 07:33

Some point in March 2020

TooSensibleOfMyDefects · 07/02/2021 07:56

I think about this a lot. I felt happiness and contentment a lot when I was younger. Sheer optimism and excitement about the future and the world. I grew up in a very positive-minded, happy-clappy family in the 90s which was a time of optimism and I honestly just felt like life and the world was at my feet ready for the taking and life would be good.

Actually life has been good in many ways but that shine and feeling of pure contentment without a worry has definitely gone. I felt it occasionally when my first baby was tiny - after years of infertility I couldn't believe my luck that he was here.

The problem for me is that I am paralysed with fear over the future for my children. I don't know when that kicked in, maybe when I started to leave them at nursery and go back into the world, and it only intensifies. As they get older and you realise how excruciatingly naive and innocent they are it dawns on you that the world is out there, just ready to fuck them up.

Mine are 5 and 3 and still so sweet and so innocent but I feel sadness and fear for their future. Dread underpins everything, even though they are happy, healthy, well-off, deeply loved, supportive family, we live in a safe place... Its mad.

Whatapalavaa · 07/02/2021 08:01

About 5 years ago

Xerochrysum · 07/02/2021 08:12

I am a quite positive person so I feel truly happy quite often, though I do feel truly unhappy at times too.
There was a thread about counting things you are grateful everyday thread few days/weeks ago.
Doing that definitely helps.

nightscreams · 07/02/2021 08:23

At work on Friday and at first I didn't realise what the strange feeling was I can't remember a time before that.

Constance44 · 07/02/2021 08:26

I'm pretty happy this morning, the DC are being pretty adorable and we've all had a decent amount of sleep. I think I'm pretty happy/contented more often than not on a day to day basis. We've had a crappy few years in lots of ways - I've lost both my parents, had two miscarriages and my FIL has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, but I am grateful for what I do still have. My dad was a massive optimist and I've inherited that outlook from him.

Fascinationends · 07/02/2021 08:32

I am mostly very positive, so often feel happy. Sometimes much happier than others, but most days I can find happiness in something. In November I had a bloody brilliant day, just perfect in every way, but most days there is something to make me smile.

cptartapp · 07/02/2021 08:52

Sat in the sun in the park in Seville on New Years Day 2020, enjoying a glass of wine with DH whilst the teens zipped about on electric scooters.
I thought then how lucky we were. Life's currently shit, but despite the lack of 'joy' I still think it.

NoAuthorityHereJackieWeaver · 07/02/2021 09:03

I have no idea .

bearlyactive · 07/02/2021 09:05

Summer 2020 actually. I knew the second wave was coming, but I had just survived an awful winter with seasonal affective disorder and so I felt like I could actually taste life when restrictions were lifted for a bit.

trilbydoll · 07/02/2021 09:06

Camping in August 2020, being in the tent always makes me feel very calm.

I was pretty happy before Christmas, I was at work, dc were at school and I'd managed to get down to 59kg. I have very simple desires! I'm now 62kg and none of us are where we are meant to be

ShinyGreenElephant · 07/02/2021 09:07

Right now with my toddler cuddled up on my knee. Neither of us dressed, DH still in bed when it was my lie in, house is a tip and I have to go and look after my grandad in an hour and its raining. But with my little girl cuddling up to me I'm perfectly, completely happy. God I hope that doesn't go away when they all grow up!

HeronLanyon · 07/02/2021 09:13

I was literally suffused with joy one evening on small Indian Ocean island in small market. No plans. No lists of stuff. No work. No arrangements. No worries. So an absence of a lot of crap and replaced by the most beautiful quiet little market and had a laugh with a stall holder and found a cd of Indian singer I wanted. Had just seen cobra crossing a road into the jungle. Felt ‘in the moment’. Can’t even really explain why - just one of those perfect moments. Several years ago. Have had good times since but also lost both parents and other difficulties and now Covid. Not felt that way before or since. Would give anything to feel that way again. May try meditation.

TwirpingBird · 07/02/2021 09:15

Last summer we went to a zoo with DD. I was pregnant with DD2, we had a picnic, it was sunny, DD had a smile on her face all day. There is a picture from that day where I look genuinely happy. Even my family have said i havent smiled like that for a long time.

Since then I have given birth to DD2, but even then, it was the first day of second lockdown and i knew the days ahead were going to be hard. I was right.

DinosApple · 07/02/2021 09:17

I feel happy a few times a day really, if the sun is shining, or I notice some new flowers are up or hear some birdsong. Those things make me happy.

When I'm at work (I'm a TA in a reception keyworker group) I put on a Just Dance for a bit of an energy burn when they are fidgeting after having had to sit for a while. I always chose upbeat songs and throw some shapes too. That makes me happy.

Don't get me wrong, there's been some really tough times in the last few years, personal, financial, huge work stresses (pre TA), bereavement, worrying about my children (one SEN) etc.

If I had to wait for life to be perfect I'd never be happy.

HeronLanyon · 07/02/2021 09:20

dinos
If I had to wait for life to be perfect I'd never be happy.
Obvious but worth saying and worth me thinking about ! Ty.

grafittiartist · 07/02/2021 09:21

Last night.
Teenage children- we all had a card games evening, then realised it was snowing, so went out in the street. Bliss!
Time all together gets rarer as they get older- so I really appreciated it!

I am a naturally happy person though. If I am not happy - I assume that something is wrong!

grafittiartist · 07/02/2021 09:23

Bellabluea - I do worry about this though- children growing up and needing us less. It's lovely to look back to when we were needed, but it makes the heart ache doesn't it.

Ledkr · 07/02/2021 09:25

Yes last summer for me too.
Beautiful weather, sitting in the garden, going to the local lake to swim and a really nice 10 day break in our camper van. Even enjoyed the pil joining us for the holiday.
This lockdown is really hard and im miserable like so many.
Met my mum for a walk yesterday and she cried and then i stopped to chat to an old man on a walk and he cried too as so lonely (i will be meeting him again) but its a really sad world right now.

DinosApple · 07/02/2021 09:28

It is living in the moment, putting aside the worries you have and trying to just enjoy the here and now.

Right now I'm watching the snow fall and enjoying it indoors in the warm, but in a minute I'll have to jump up, feed the birds, wrap up our outdoor taps, make a Neal, go to Tesco etc etc.

I'm good at daydreaming, maybe that helps.

YouJustDoYou · 07/02/2021 09:30

Last night. Seeing my.children asleep, sprawled all over the duvet covers. I had an extremely.shit, extremely lonely childhood, a lot of family deaths, a lot of just pure horribkeness, so just this simple no drama, no horror, no sadness happiness is enough to make.me burst with its happy singleness.

YouJustDoYou · 07/02/2021 09:31

*simpleness

MysweetAudrina · 07/02/2021 09:32

I genuinely find moments of happiness each day. What really helps me recognise them is getting up at 7am each morning and doing a yoga class for an hour. I have done this daily for the last 3 years and obviously my studio has gone online since March 2020. I am finding things tough atm with working full time from home in a responsible, busy position and with my 2 primary school children at home too. But no day goes by with out moments of happiness, joy and contentment. The same way as no day goes my without moments of frustration, stress and disappointment. The daily yoga practice lets me start each day anew and leave the day before behind. It allows me connect with my breath and go inward and align my body with my mind.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Swipe left for the next trending thread