Is happiness something over which people have no control, or can people choose to be happy?

like any other 'things' in life happiness is an emotional state where we humans or even our pets have no control. but the good news is that we can definitely choose to be positive thinking or just the other way around, be miserable and negative.





just think, do we ever have control over hurricanes, typhoons or earthquakes? definitely NO.





but we are now conditioned to analyze, to 'think'.


imbibe that sense of contentment.





listening to your favorite songs, looking at old family photographs, surfing the net, treating yourself or mate to a hearty dinner, downloading or buying that fabulous cd of your fave artist, taking your dogs to walk. these are things that makes us happy. that i believe.





remember, there is no such thing as permanent except change. we are born, grow, and die. death ought not to be feared of but should rather be welcomed.





we can just hope to die peacefully in sleep. peace.Is happiness something over which people have no control, or can people choose to be happy?
i think it has a lot to do with your state of mind. if you are a negative person, you will probably be more unhappy than if you chose to look at things in a positive wayIs happiness something over which people have no control, or can people choose to be happy?
One of my favourite quotes is by Abraham Lincoln





'; I guess a man is as happy as he sets his mind to be';





If it was good enough for Abe, then it is good enough for me
well no.. you can't really choose just to be happy all the time. tha's justa lie and a really well painted mask. but being satisfied woth what one has.. and delighting in small things is a start.. i think we only have limited control over happiness. except if ti fills us totally for some great random reason !!
There are many things that make you happy...situations.comments and even things you look at..You can help control it by doing things that make you happy and being with fun ppl..But then there are things that get in your way such as a death or a divroce..No one can be happy all the time..It's just a part of life.
Happiness is something YOU experience. It has nothing to do with anyone or anything outside of YOU.





It's the same as love. YOU experience it whether the object of your affection feels the same way or not.





Happiness is a sense of contentment you feel with whatever, who ever, wherever you are right at that very moment.





The better question is do you have control over your own emotions. Now that is an interesting question. To that I would say that we can consciously experience happiness by actively seeking out what is inherently beautiful, good, pleasant or delightful about what it is we are experiencing (person, place thing).





Subconsciously, we experieince things that trigger laughter or joyful response because this new thing fits into a category we already have for similar experieces that make us feel happy.





All of our emotions are like file drawers in our subconsicous where we are either currently storing things or we have already stored things. the drawers have names like ';scary';, ';yukky';, ';interesting';, ';funny';, ';sad';, ';happy'; etc.





Pretty basic categories because we all labeled them when we were under 7 years old.
You can choose to find solutions to your problems, which as a result, gives you happiness. You always have a choice.
No,not exactly.For example,when something bad happens to a loved one that causes something great to happen to you you cant help but be a little happy for yourself.Say your friend gets dumped but then that guy that dumped your friend(that youve loved forever)asks you out after dumping her.Youd be happy and sad.


Then again,the day is only as good as you want it to be.Happiness all depends on how optimistic you are.Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty person?It all depends on your outlook on life.Almost EVERYTHING depends on your outlook in life
To reach happiness is to know first what it is. Depends on you, if you are stuck in a really bad situation or messed up, you can always try to look for happiness in the moment. Remember, happy moments long a very short time. Enjoy them and don't take advantage of it. Happiness is something that needs to be worked for and only you know what makes you happy. You can choose to control how and when you achive happiness or you can wait and never gain it.
We can choose to be happy by accepting our daily life as it comes, as it is. We just have to learn how to deal with it by adding a little bit of ';hope and faith'; that better days will come.By doing that, we add also, the so long awaited ';happiness';.