Have you ever been reading a book, watching, TV, or be involved in some activity when your spouse, friend, associate, comes to you and ask you to do something else because you don’t look happy doing what your doing? They want to see you happy, engaged in conversation with them, and being more of an extrovert. You are perfectly content, satisfied, and happy with whatever activity you are participating in. But then the next thing you know is you are questioning yourself wondering if you are really happy or is your spouse, friend, associate not happy. Either way this situation needs to be investigated and some solution be found.
What is happy anyway? Happy, by definition, means having a feeling of pleasure or contentment. What Does It Mean to Be Happy? Art Markman Ph.D. (May 10, 2013) in an article by the same name explains the meaning stating, “There are two interesting aspects to these data analyses. First, there has been a shift in the US from a focus on happiness as a state that is caused from the outside through luck and prosperity to an internal emotional state that is under the control of the person. Second, the view that happiness involves strong elements of external forces like luck is still common around the world, even if it is not common in the United States.” Now you have to ask yourself if you are responsible for others and how do you control your own emotions. Sarah Lyons (Apr 2, 2018) article in You Can’t Expect Your Partner to Make You Happy writes, “Happiness is something that should come from inside yourself. It’s up to you to have it whether it’s through your daily work, interactions with family/friends, or hobbies you’ve chosen to do. You have to take responsibility for how you live your life. You have to own the fact that you are in full control of how you choose to spend your time and who you spend it with. You can’t depend on others to fulfill your needs, because ultimately, only you can know what those are.” Chinae Alexander (Jul 16, 2013) writes in Why Can’t We Just Be Happy For Each Other? “We Run Everything Through The “Self-Filter”: It is so difficult to see and experience the joy that others have experienced because we are too distracted with how it makes us feel. Without fail, we sift through the other person’s joy and figure out the exact parts we can extract to make ourselves feel worse about our own situation.” Each person has their own“Self-Filter” that determines their jealousy, envy, appreciation, and other emotions that are being experience.