Oh to be happy

Had a great course today, including lots of good food and tea. To be honest I am still shaking from the sugar rush!

We spent the day working hard and had a good chat over lunch. One of the topics that surfaced was about money and being happy. I never have really agreed with the quote;

"Money can't make you happy"

because I think it can make you happy. If you don't have enough money I think you would be very unhappy. There must be a bare minimum amount of money that everyone needs to be happy with. Excess money might not make you happy, but having financial security certainly will help making you happy I think. The topic of conversation then turned to be what actually makes you happy.

This was a hard one and still to this moment, I have know idea how I would answer this question. As the question was passed round the table, various people gave their answers. Their children was a popular one, and some answered that they were already happy and nothing could make them happier. One answer was interesting because it mentioned that if they had more time they would be happy. I could imagine that this would be the case, how many times do we wish for crave for more time. Time to get things finished, time to spend with friends, time to enjoy some 'me' time. However, after pondering this idea for a while, I came to the conclusion that if I had more time, I would just fill it with more work, or more mundane things, and maybe not with what I would actually need to do like relaxing or spending time on personal interests.
My current thought over this whole topic is that nothing can actually make you happy. Happiness is an emotion or a state of mind. As such, is it possible to almost self induce happiness. When we are feeling low, several outside factors may contribute to us feeling low, but the actually state of mind can be seen as being self induced. I know that if I let myself feel down about things, then my mood slowly changes. Putting on sad music while I feel low almost like amplifies the mood. If this is the case, then perhaps I can self induce happiness. Is it possible to actually make yourself happy no matter what your situation is in life. Maybe being content and having self confidence in yourself and life is actually the things that make you happy.

Now I am wondering if I have actually answered the original question, what makes you happy. Perhaps the answer is that the only thing that will make me happy is myself.

Wow, heavy blog or what!

Defintely time for bath and bed....Have fun!