Yes. I am in complete agreement with you. True happiness is not dependant on outside influences, but on how you choose to be.

[edit] I agree with Sarn, too.

I'd be happy if I was completely healthy...and I mean guaranteed to never get something ****ty like cancer or HIV or something...My life would be perfect if I was healthy...(I've been going to the cardiologist for a couple of months with heart problems, its depressing)

I'm at the "I don't care" stage, so I'm happy/carefree/content etc. 8)

edit

"I don't care" as in I'm not trying so hard. I value the small things in life and find joy in them. I believe that if people stopped trying so hard to "find happiness" they would feel a lot better about themselves, be less stressed and depressed etc.

psychiatrist Charles Ford, M.D., adds depressed people to that list. He suggests that individuals in the throes of depression seldom deceive others--or are deceived themselves--because they seem to perceive and describe reality with greater accuracy than others. Several studies show that depressed people delude themselves far less than their nondepressed peers about the amount of control they have over situations, and also about the effect they have on other people. Researchers such as UCLA psychologist Shelley Taylor, Ph.D., have even cited such findings as evidence that a certain amount of self-delusion--basically, lying to yourself--is essential to good mental health.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying society is bad or that we'd be happier without it. I'm saying that happiness doesn't depend on external circumstances, but internal ones. Ultimately, anyway.

Anyway, I digress. I contradict myself and view life through whatever frame of mind I feel.

I'm happy. Funny thing is, most of it started when I realized that I was an atheist.

Happiness? I don't know. Probably not. Contentment, though? Yes.

I find that very amusing/interesting.

Yeah, one of my friends got really depressed and it turned him into an atheist....and that's just kind of sad. I have been an atheist for a long time, and I hate to see it happen that way.

There are times when I think I've gained complete happiness. It usually happens in the summer, when I just get bored and go sit in the yard with a book, and our cat comes up and curls up on my lap. I've spent hours at a time just sitting there petting the cat, not worried about a thing, not wanting to be disturbed. The bus ride I did a stupid thread about, with my arm around the girl, I was happy then. Great 3 hours, I had no cares in my life whatsoever, other than her being comfortable and shutting up the idiots in the bus with us, and it was all in fun.

Since about October up until last Tuesday, I don't think I ever had a BAD day. October was a great month, and several things happened that made me a better person. About any time from last Tuesday to October, I could have put a smile on my face unless I was in a rare ticked off mood for the moment. Or I had alot of homework that week, or I put it off until thursday night, or something similar.

But these incidents are both temporary happiness (although October - Tuesday was good). I can't stop caring/worrying long enough to maintain happiness. I can't stop worrying about grades, and I can't stop worrying how people perceive me (freaking teenage years). Morals/religion are also a big thing, but those sometimes help me become happier for the moment (but not happy). Caring and worrying stop me from happiness, I can't hand everything over to some deity to find happiness because I can't place my trust like that, and I can't just mentally stop worrying because if I stop worrying, I worry I may not perform as well. And if I don't perform as well, I don't feel up to spec with one of my friends, and I let my parents and a couple teachers down.

You can care about something without worrying about it. I care what people think of me, but it doesn't keep me up at night. I care about my grades, but I don't stress out about them. I just try to work hard to keep them up if I can. Worrying is when you do nothing but think about all the different terrible aspects of something but don't really do anything about it.

Calvin and Hobbes can be used to answer every question in life.

i ponder suicide every day.

I cant say I'm happy but I cant say I'm depressed either.

I've just accepted that life seems to enjoy inflicting its sadistic, twisted sense of humour on me.

Argh, it got tl;dr somewhere back there. Guys, less philosophy or whatever, more happy.

Happiness has yet to come to me. It will not be for a while.

That makes you damned more interesting than most people.