How happy are you?

[theskull1]

Exceptions excluded....

Self pity from what I've seen of it, is an addiction just like drink/drugs/sheep which leads people down a road to destruction over time. I find it impossible to pander to people who crave it. The minute you try to give them a potentially positive way out of their predicament they get annoyed with you.

[SLIGONIAN]

I think your entitled to feel some self pity when a load of situations outside of your control are negative. Whilst I learned through life to ackonwledge it and Its ok  to feel that way when bad things happen, I move on from it fairly quick and yes yer right no point walloying in it. Life makes you who you are in alot of ways, suffering can be hard to bear, it effects everyone different. I found a type of Neuro linguistic programming massive in terms of my happiness. I live in the moment and I deal with bad stuff when I NEED to, I face it full on, but then I get out it asap, sometimes it harder depending on the negative situation. Weve all had really bad stuff happen us, so its up to you how you deal with it, I do it through yoga, meditation and NLP. It gives me control of my mind triggering life enhancing emotions, to be honest I was forced to find these tools by the suffering i was going through at the times.

I think its more important to feel at peace with yourself than being happy, so many people have there happiness in material stuff, but it doesnt do it for me, I like to feel peace more than happiness, kinda the middle ground between positivity and negativity. Way less drama in that place.  I would consider myself 80% fairly happy and at peace staying in the moment, when I sway from that place my mind can into overdrive on negativity based on a past habitual suffering, unconcious so to speak like I call it robot mode. Most people are in that mode and thats why the world is so f@cked up.

[maggie]

Its Friday evening so im f**king delighted!!   

[curvey]

Its Friday evening so im f**king delighted!!   

Me 2 Maggie and i'm off work all next week too .

I personally can't understand how people get themselves down with problems, i mean we all get knockbacks throughout our life and you dust yourself down, get back up and go at it again. I'm jolly 99% of the time and it would take something really bad to get me in a bad mood as for depression i wouldn't know what it was but i suppose thats why we're all different individuals.

[illdecide]

I tell you what...i got the scare of my life 2 weeks ago when my 1 year old son took sick, i rushed him to hospital and i'll never to the day i die forget the sight of my cub lying there thinking his next breath was his last. The hospital started to treat him for meningitis and he was just lying there lifeless, i looked up and seen the worried look on the nurses face and thats when i started to realise how sick he was. He ended up with infections in several places and not meningitis as first feared, i'll tell ya what i got the shock of my life and i now realise how well i have things and am thankfull for them.

[ONeill]

Think so.

I have 3-4 things I need to work on if I want to achieve those ambitions and at present I've spent 3-4 years doing nothing about furthering them.

Good wife despite ripping at things and deadly children. Good friends and decent work. Good family and no one I'm not talking to. Sexy dentist.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

Pretty pissed off today - lost a load of money today, managed to let an envelope full of cash fall out of my pocket in Belfast 

Generally have things pretty good though I think. near enough where I want to be at this stage of my life and probably haven't even had to work as hard as I should have had to. No major tragedies either. Will be annoyed looking back in a few years if I don't succeed in my new career but at least I have the opportunity to give it a go and hopefully I'll work hard and have the bit of luck I need to suceed.

[020304 Tir Eoghain]

Still get up every Monday to Friday & head off to work, & in these particular times, you gotta be happy with that!

[Rav67]

Happy enough.  Found an envelope full of cash this afternoon on the Malone Road.

The pursuit of happiness is a complicated animal. Its always intrigued me what makes different people content in life, especially when you'd know some fella who was miserable all the time and you'd think if you were in the shoes you'd be the happiest man alive and the opposite goes for some people who seem happy all the time.   I suppose for everyone there's different elements with relationships with others being the most important including family/friends/gf/bf or whatever, job, having activities you enjoy and then probably material comfort as the last one.

All these factors really build in to an individual's sense of self-worth which leads to contentment or otherwise.  Like the majority of folk I'd be very satisfied in some respects and not so much in others, but anytime I ever do feel a bit down I'd think through why exactly, take the positives out of the situation and remember all the good things and good luck I have enjoyed.  That seems to work for me but obviously everyone's different and some people find it very difficult if they get in a rut to get out of it.

[The Watcher Pat]

People I am generally a happy person. Granted I havent got a lot but I have a whole lot more than some people. It just takes me to see my wee god daughter for 10 mins and that wee smile makes my whole day.

Material things don't make you happy, a smile and a laugh from her is worth more to me than anything i own.

[Son_of_Sam]

Most people think I am a very happy, maybe too happy person, but I spend a lot of time where I feel like I'm in a bottomless pit or sick to the stomic. The thing is I always realise that I will feel better, even when I'm feeling shit. It might be strange what gets me down, for instance I lost about 10-15K in shares in the economic crises, but it didn't bother me one bit (& I don't have all that much money to be losing), I know it should have, but it didn't. What bothers me more was my career path or lack of one. But I have always found that I have an inner strength even when I feel it is a waste of time, I always dig deep even at the last minute and try & try to find a solution. So I'm going back to college soon and going down an entirely new career path. I have set myself a target, I intend reaching it.

Another thing that really really gets me down is that I haven't had any real relationship and I feel like I'm getting older rapid. I was always the guy with loads of sexy female friends, the lad all the girls loved to bits but none wanted to go out with. It's sickening to be told that you would make the best boyfriend in the World but your 99% of the time single. That got me down big time a lot. However in the last year, especially the last 4 months or so I have started having a lot more luck with the women, I could not figure out why, I'm older, I have got no thinner or more muscley, I'm no smarter or funnier or better looking. So why, I've noticed that since I've started acting more positive, that women respond.

I'm a very nostalgic person too, so that kinda can pull ya down a bit, but sure nostalgia is only there because ya must be happy to be nostalgic about 

I no longer have pints if I'm feeling down, I have a few cokes if its a night out & I'm not in the best of humour. If I'm drinking and start feeling down I stop drinking asap.

I know I will probably always spend times down, but if you think about it, the times you are happy makes all the bad times worth it.

I suppose I would say yes I am happy, even if I spend a lot of time unhappy.

[DrinkingHarp]

The world's happiest cities user
by Forbes.com, on Wed Sep 2, 2009 11:37am PDT  Zack O'Malley Greenburg

Ten urban centers closely associated with unmitigated joy.



Ever since Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in the 1933 film Flying Down to Rio, the world has been fascinated with Rio de Janeiro. Popular perception of the city is infused with images of starry-eyed youngsters dancing into the dusk, backed by imposing mountains and dark sea.



"Brazil is associated with all these qualities of good humor and good living and Carnaval," says Anholt. "Carnaval is very important--it's the classic image that people have of Rio, and it's an image of happiness."

In Pictures: The World's Happiest Cities
Next on the list is the top city from Down Under: Sydney, Australia. Known for balmy weather, friendly locals and an iconic opera house, Sydney fared well in Anholt's survey because of its association with a popular brand--Australia.

"It's where everybody would like to go," he says. "Everybody thinks they know Australia because they've seen Crocodile Dundee. There's this image of this nation of people who basically sit around having barbecues."

Rounding out the top five are third-ranked Barcelona, Spain, which Anholt calls "the classic Mediterranean city"; fourth-ranked Amsterdam, Netherlands, because Anholt's young respondents "know you can smoke dope in the bars"; and Melbourne, Australia, which makes the list simply because it's in Australia.

"People know it's in Australia, and that it's full of Australians," says Anholt. "Therefore, it must be fun."

Behind the Numbers
The data Anholt provided for our list is part of his Nation Brands Index, which he developed in 2005. The latest incarnation, the 2009 Anholt-GfK Roper City Brands Index, was released in June. The data was compiled from online interviews with 10,000 respondents in 20 countries.

Happiness is difficult to quantify, and Anholt acknowledges that his data is less an indicator of where local populations are happiest than a reflection of respondents' thinking about where they could imagine themselves happy.

"This is a survey of perception, not a survey of reality," he says. "People write me all the time and say 'that's not true.' It probably isn't true, but it's what people think. The gap between perception and reality is what interests city governments."

The French historian Fernand Braudel wrote that "Happiness, whether in business or private life, leaves very little trace in history." But a perception of happiness leaves a strong trace on the balance sheets of cities that depend on conventions, tourism and an influx of talent.

The Pursuit of Happiness
Anholt notes that the results of his survey reflect the longstanding reputation of Mediterranean and Latin American cities as non-stop party locales.

"It's pretty much the expected bunch," says Anholt. "Though I'm a little surprised about Spain outdoing Italy. It's interesting that the Spanish are perceived as being happier than the Italians--I find the Spanish rather gloomy."

Still, Barcelona--Spain's highest-ranked city--has plenty of supporters.

"The beauty of the city and its environs, along with affordable housing and business opportunities, is the fantastic lifestyle," says Michelle Finkelstein, a vice president at travel agency Our Personal Guest. "There's not the stress of getting a child into the best preschool--the public ones are good and close by. And they have the top soccer team and some of the best weather in Europe."

Other places in the world that lack the metropolitan flair of the cities on this list are often identified with the notion of happiness. "Anyone lucky enough to visit the magical Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan would know that there is no competition: There can be no happier place," says Patricia Schultz, author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. "This small Buddhist nation of incredibly stunning beauty follows a unique guiding philosophy of GNH--Gross National Happiness. You can see it in their open faces--they smile from the heart. Barcelona has nothing on them."

Global rivalries notwithstanding, Anholt notes that his findings more or less support historical trends, with one notable exception.

"The cities on this list would probably be the same if I'd been running this survey in 1890, aside from Sydney and Melbourne," he says. "Australia is kind of a branding miracle."

Not bad for a former penal colony.

Top 5 World's Happiest Cities
1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. Sydney, Australia
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Melbourne, Australia

See the full list of The World's Happiest Cities

More From Forbes.com:
World's Friendliest Countries
World's Best Places To Eat Well
World's Best-Paid Cities

Related: worlds happiest cities, lifestyle, brazil

[Galwaybhoy]

Any day you get up and the family are all healthy is a damn happy day.

I think thats the main thing.  Other things are important but at the end of the day your health is your wealth.

[The Watcher Pat]

Any day you get up and the family are all healthy is a damn happy day.

I think thats the main thing.  Other things are important but at the end of the day your health is your wealth.

You 2 lads have hit the nail right on the head!

[blewuporstuffed]

Any day you get up and the family are all healthy is a damn happy day.

I think thats the main thing.  Other things are important but at the end of the day your health is your wealth.

You 2 lads have hit the nail right on the head!

The real measure of you wealth is how much you would be worth if you lost all your money.