Happiness is defined as "a state of well-being or contentment."

One's happiness is something that only he or she can determine. No one else can tell you what makes you happy. They can have an influence on your happiness, but they don't determine what makes you happy.

The part of the definition that just automatically sticks out to me is "a state of well-being". To me, that means that you have to be overall well, whether mentally, physically, emotionally, etc.

In other words, you need to make sure that you are taken care of in order to be happy. I think of it as self care more than anything. Just because on the outside you may seem happy, it does not mean that you are okay on the inside. Because on the outside you may want to make others think you are okay. But on the inside, a battle could be raging on.

We do that because we want others to think we're happy. If we do that, people are less likely to ask questions and check on us. Even though we hate it, we know they are just trying to help. They care about us and just want what is best for us and our happiness. Though in the end, we still decide what makes us happy.

Because it's our lives. We determine what comes into it, and what goes out of it. We determine what makes us sad, mad, happy, excited. We make it what we want it to be. And that's the way it should be. As long as we are healthy all around, I believe we can be happy. We can't let others decide what is best for us. Only we can do that.