Happiness and contentment are the same for me and I basically spend my waking hours searching for them usually without much success. This is not to say I am depressed or a perennial sad-sack but I can't say that my feelings of genuine happiness last for very long. This is of course at odds with our expectations from childhood and the constant media barrage informing us that we can be happy all the time, we deserve to be happy all the time. And of course when we are not happy at all times and we see all those happy people on TV living those wonderful fulfilling lives we look at ourselves and think 'What did I do wrong? Why aren't I that happy?' Well, unfortunately I believe that we have been lied to by our parents, teachers, and Hollywood; even if you work hard, study hard, do all the right things happiness is not going to be your constant companion. Denis Leary has a great bit about people who complain about not being happy, 'You're not happy? Join the fucking club pal...happiness comes in small doses, it's a cigarette, or chocolate chip cookie, or a five-second orgasm, that's it. You come, you smoke the butt, you eat the cookie, go to sleep and go to work the next day, end of fucking story.' So when I have those moments when I think why am I not floating on cloud 9 I take a moment and think about the things I've accomplished, the things I've seen, the people I've met and the things I can still do with my life and it generally puts a little hop in my step and I can once more step into the breach.
I like his description of happiness. Mindfullness in the moment.
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