Is anyone really happy?

[lemonysnickett]

I ask this question because recently have been very surprised by things people have said....went to xmas party with colleagues, one of them brought hubby along..married for 2 years. Seemed happy enough to me, he was a bit quiet but thought it was because he didn't know anyone. In the past she has always spken about him fondly..seemd very content..said they had recently bought a house which they were decorating..etcetc..then, the other day she told me she is very unhappy and wants to leave him. she is bored and frustrated..they have different interests, he doesn't seem to want to socialise much..doesn't make her feel special...she seems certain she wants to leave him.
I was very shocked...I used to look at her sometimes envy the fact that she seemed so content and happy....not in a jealous way ...more in and admiring way.
I thought about how a lot of what she had said was not true. She had painted a picture that wasn't reality.
another situation...friend of mine always talks about her boyfriend in a very positive way..he cooks for her..seems to dote on her really...recenty she has said some things that make me wonder if this is all true or she has tried to make it seem happier than it is.
someone else I know ...again always acted very happy with her marriage..cut a long story short..they divorced.
I have to admit...sometimes i go into work acting hunky dory ..when really i feel miserable cos of an argumetn or something.
Is anyone really happy and content and fulfilled with their lives?
Are all men completely selfish?
The friend i mentioned at the beginning of this message is a lovely, beautiful, intelligent girl....her husband doesn't seem to appreciate her ...he has blown it!
Is anyone really happy?

There are 2 sides to every story - maybe he is miserable and antisocial and ignores her, or maybe she suggests going out clubbing when he would prefer to go to the movies, and wants flowers and lots of romance. I think that in the long term all relationships have ups and downs, doesn't mean that essentially people aren't really happy, any one of us can home in on one really good or bad thing our partners have said or done and distort the picture we give others of our relationships.

I'm happy.
Have always had a pretty happy personality. Was a happy child, teenager, adult. Of course some things made/make me unhappy, and have had some shitty things to deal with, but am generally an optimist. Am also a realist, and practical, and if something makes me unhappy and there is anything I can do to change it, I do.

Don't have a "perfect" life, but am happy.

I'm perennially happy. And it is in my marriage that I am happiest.

i think the meanng of happy tends to change as u get older or ur life style changes, when younger pre kids iwas happy just to get through the working week and get out at the weekend, a bit of shopping, a lot of socialising and loads of male attention, now i have a dp, two ds and a better working life, my overall life is happier i just yearn sometimes for the carefree days of youth and think on thoose days that im not happy with my life, if any of that makes sense, sorry if not

I am happy. My dp makes me miserable though. Constant negativity.

I'm pretty happy, interspersed with moments of "downess" but they're entirely predictable now (ds1's birthday, Xmas and 2 weeks after any major intervention/assesment with ds1). So I just wait for it to go away usually lasts a few weeks. I'm booking time off around ds1's birthday next year as I know I'll be useless for 2 weeks. So I'm just going to schlep around.

I never believe people who tell you how wonderful their life is, always think its a front. I moan all the time, but I'm pretty content really

Agree CC about negativity. Its really wearing if someone is always negative. I had a "friend", actually the mum of one of dd's friends, and she is so negative all the time about everything. Wears me down and so see less of her than I might.

interesting to hear all your views but i really feel nowadays more than ever people put on a front...if you think about programmes like desperate housewives..if anyone watches it...it is obviously light entertainment but based on some premise that we all live different lives behind closed doors...to the ones we portry.personally, i miss my carefree days too...although fee quite content most of te time..but i wiuld be lying if i said my life really excites me...have a pretty normal routine day in day ou...i would like to go out more, get dressed up more...feel more like i used to..sorrry to sound so negative...just the way i feel sometimes..
i thinkd on the whole i agree that people that make their lives sound great ..have got to be fibbing...god, i have become so cynical!!!

sorry about all the spelling errors...my 4 year old has pulled some of the keys out of the keyboard on my laptop(just a phase he was going through!)

No, but I never expected to be, either.

Well I am happy, I truely think I am a lucky person and it's not down to DH or anything. I am just the sort of person where things simply go OK.

That might sound smug, but I really believe that I am blessed with a happy gene, I do get down at moments, I do have a firey temper too. But I always bounce back and always land on my feet.

Partly I think what helps is that I am not jealous or enveous of anyone else. I never look at what others have and want it. I I want something I find a way of getting it. However I also don't have daft ambitions. Yes I would like a pair of Gina shoes, but I am really happy with Office ones IYKWIM

BTW I do have a good relationship with my DH I simply can't imagin ea life without him there.

I am very happy. I have off days lke everyone else. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter a nice house, I never want for anything. I think everyone goes through good and bad times, I think its how you deal with the bad times that counts. You also need a positive outlook.

sometimes and that is good enough for me

sometimes I am also very

think it all balances out, mostly my glass is half full, sometimes it overflows

Yeah, I'm happy. Depends what you think you need to make you happy, though.

I've always been very happy, always felt loved even when single, which I think affects so many things. But that's the only thing I don't control myself - all my other happiness I work hard at achieving and maintaining. I'm all for being responsible for your own happiness (ironically 99% of the time that involves thinking about other people and not dwelling on yourself.)
When I'm feeling down I try really hard to count my blessings and focus on the positive.
Just read a great book on marriage btw if anyone wants cheering up.

Happiness is a bit of a difficult concept to define, but yes, I think I am happy. I seem to have one (usually minor in the scheme of things) difficulty or complication after another, and I'm finding bouncing back a bit tough at the moment, and I'm certainly not 'fulfilled', but rather on my way there - but I have very many people and things in my life which give me great pleasure and intense happiness. I'm certainly lucky - not in terms of everything going right, but in terms of coming through things pretty much intact.

I am happy.

I have a lovely husband, a good marriage, fantastic children
a job I like, with people I respect (mostly) and where I laugh quite a lot
I like where I live
I'm happy with my friends (although I could do with a bit more time to spend with them)
I'm getting on well with my family atm
We have enough money, can afford things we want
have things to look forward to
have no awful things going on in our lives.

I'd like to lose some weight (which I'm doing) but other than that I really am happy. And that's somethnig I can fix and doesn't affect me (mostly) day to day as dh still fancies me it's just how I feel about it that bothers me. But hey, I even feel happy that I'm doing something about it.

There's an article in last month's Economist about Happiness and what constitutes happiness, will see if I can find it. (Only reason I bought it)

bit of it here
Has anyone read the Oliver James book? Isn't that about how we're unhappier since the 50's despite societal advances in many areas?

Sunday Times article here which I haven't read but I'm going to

I haven't read all of that ST article yet but children don't make us happy, apparently

I think people were probaly happier in the fiftys. Life wasn't so complicated for people. Technology has never made anyone happy.

I'm happy...

I adore my family
My husband is my best friend and I love him loads (and as far as I'm aware he feels the same)
I like where I live
I have some brilliant friends
I'm happy with my weight (strangely I'm the thinnest I've ever been and I've had three kids!)
Not soo keen on my new hairdo but hey!

I am not happy with the general state of the world though and even unhappier I can't do anything about it!

Lots of people here are listing the external things that do/don't make them happy e.g. nice husband, nice area, nice children, nice job etc....

Actually it's not the external things that make us happy, it's more an internal state, hence some people still unhappy went they seemingly have everything and others happy despite their lot seeming a bit shit.

I know this because the Dalai lama told me (in a book, we're not best mates.)