What is the definition of happiness? Different people define happiness in different ways. According to Helen Keller true happiness is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. Og Mandino ask us to realize that true happiness lies within us. He said, "Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself." ClickHappiness.com attempts in this page to help you realize what true happiness is! Find below some valuable happiness tips, inspirational happiness quotes and articles.

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Here are five things you can do to be happier:

Smile, even when you don't feel like it..

laugh, as often as possible.

and love, with abandon.

Take time to enjoy the little things in life.

If we learn to give of ourselves, to forgive others, and to live with
    thanks giving,

we need not seek happiness .... it will seek us.

What everyone wants from life is continuous and genuine happiness. - Baruch Spinoza

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life. - Leo Buscaglia

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Norman Macewan

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. - Albert Camus

Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient. - Aristotle

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. - Denice Waitley

There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else. - Peyton Conway March

Happiness depends upon ourselves. - Aristotle

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. - Storm Jameson

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved. - Victor Hugo

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. - Aristotle

Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who pause to consider the antithesis: that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable. - Primo Levi

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government. - Aristotle

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route. - Charles Caleb Colton

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. - Burton Hills

A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted. - George Santayana

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, And the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. - Buddha

Happiness is not merely a life lived by accumulating moments of pleasure. On the contrary, happiness is a long lasting enduring enjoyment of life, it is being in love with living. It is your reward for achieving a good character and personal rational values in life. Some important values are a productive career, romance, friendship and hobbies. - Dr. Ellen Kenner

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads. - Albert Camus

Happiness for me is to know that my life has meaning and purpose, and that every day my life touches others in a positive way - whether to make them laugh or learn or both at once! - Deanna Mascle

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence. - Sydney Smith

The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. - Marcus A. Antoninus

Man does not know what true happiness is until he gets married, but then it's too late. - Piers Anthony

How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success. - Anne Sophie Swetchine

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold, the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul. - Democritus

Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are. - John B. Sheerin

Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think. - Dale Carnegie

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Herman Cain

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. - Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is itself a kind of gratitude. - Joseph Wood Krutch

Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of travelling. - Margaret Lee Runbeck

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. - Charles H. Spurgeon

• Genetic propensity to happiness.
• Marriage.
• Make friends and value them.
• Desire less.
• Do someone a good turn.
• Earn more money.
• Grow old gracefully.
• Don't worry if you're not genius.
• Have faith (religious or not).
• Stop comparing looks with others.

Have you ever had one of those days where you just wish you were in a better mood? Perhaps you tried to shift your state of mind to something better but struggled to achieve it.

Sometimes we get stuck in our own 'stinking thinking' and forget how easy it is to feel happier, so here are seven simple ways to lift your mood that many people have found useful and some of them may surprise you!

1. Go for a walk.
Most folk know that going for a short daily walk is one of the best forms of exercise. If you can, go into a natural environment with flowers, trees and birds. What will you notice first? The different shades of greenery, the fresh smell of country air, the bird sounds, or the sunlight shining through the tree foliage.

2. Listen to some quality music.
Music creates magical effects. It can shift the listeners state within moments. Why not dig out that album you haven't listened to in ages or why not tune in your radio to something you've never listened to before.

3. Think of others less fortunate.
The fact that you are reading this article suggests that you are probably much better off than many, many people on this planet! What if you were to imagine being in space looking down on the amazing beautiful earth, noticing all the oceans and lands with the clouds above... And then thinking about the fact that there are many human beings that are starving, homeless and in lots of pain... Allow your compassion for them to grow.

4. Read something radical!
How many different types of magazines can you get these days?! Have you ever waltzed into a big newsagents and just browsed through the magazine racks? It's incredible. Why not buy a magazine you wouldn't normally buy. You never know you may discover something wonderful!

5. Laughing at laughter.
Have you ever had the experience when you just laugh for no good reason? Isn't it great! Laughter is one of the best ways to lift your spirits. Can't think of anything funny?

Try grinning at yourself insanely in the mirror and notice how difficult it becomes to control your giggle muscles!

6. Simple breathing meditation.
A great exercise that you can do anywhere is a simple breathing meditation. No need to dress in orange robes. Simply find yourself in a comfortable sitting position with your back straight. Now close your eyes and become aware of the flow of air into and out of your nostrils. That's it! Do this for 10/15 minutes and you'll find yourself pleasantly
surprised how you feel afterward.

7. Doodling just for fun!
Remember when you were young and you used to doodle with crayons for hours. Kids love drawing silly little pictures, why not adults? So get some pens, pencils, crayons or whatever you have and just draw - doodle away until your state of mind shifts.

You might agree that these are all pretty simple and that's what's so good about them. Making changes, mundane or profoundly life-changing, are easily and quickly achieved by putting into action simple ideas, methods, tools and techniques.

Happiness can mean different things to different people. For example, for one person, it may mean being in a happy relationship, whereas for someone else it may mean pursuing their favourite interest in form of either a hobby or career. It has been established that happiness is a state of mind where a person feel happy when there is less of pain and more of pleasure. In other words, we may assume that happiness is all about minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure. Now, pleasure could be about finding satisfaction in ourselves and in what we have done. Even when what we have done has been painful!

Wikipedia defines Happiness as an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy. The correlates which can alter the 'measurement of happiness' includes religious involvement, parenthood, marital status and income. A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources.

Science of Happiness

Several factors contribute towards our happiness. Martin Seligman, an American based psychologist has suggested an 'equation for happiness':

H = S + C + V - where H = Happiness S = Set range/genetics (Approx.50%) C = Circumstances (8-15%) V = Voluntary Control (Past, Present & Future)

Set Range/Genetics - Studies have proved that about 50% of our leval of happiness is determined by our genes, which means that we are all born with a certain "set-point" of happiness. This set or level of happiness may alter if some dramatic events happens in our lives. But, this change is temporary and usually your happiness level will return to its 'set point' within a year or so.

Circumstances - Circumstances play a role in influencing the level of happiness and accounts for only around 8-15% of our happiness levels.

Voluntary Control - This is one of the most important factor in 'Equation of Happiness' because one can control it, and in the process control their happiness. All those aspects of our lives over which we have a relatively higher degree of control, including our thoughts and actions and also the way we choose to think about and act on the past, present, and future, have quite a significant impact on how happy we are. When thinking about the past, happier among us will pay attention to what is 'good' about the past, rather than focusing on the sad times. These people are grateful and far more forgiving than 'unhappy' people. Similarly happy people are more optimistic about their future in a realistic manner. Even if future does'nt turn in a way they had visualized, they know it's not the end of the world either. The way you think about and act in the present, also determin how happy you are. Happy people would find happiness in present surroundings, bulidings and being in meaningful relationships.

Stefan Klein, in his book The Science of Happiness, links the dynamics of neurobiological systems to the concepts and findings of positive psychology and social psychology.

Are Religious People Happier?

A recent systematic review of 850 research papers on the topic concluded that "the majority of well-conducted studies found that higher levels of religious involvement are positively associated with indicators of psychological well-being like satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, and higher morale and with less depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior, and drug or alcohol abuse." Studies by Keith Ward show that overall religion is a positive contributor to mental health (read happiness) and similarly, surveys by Gallup, the National Opinion Research Centre and the Pew Organization conclude that spiritually committed people are twice as likely to report being "very happy" than the least religiously committed people.

Philosphy of Happiness

In the Nicomachean Ethics, written in 350 B.C.E., Aristotle stated that happiness is the only emotion that humans desire for its own sake. He opined that men sought riches, or honor, or health, not for their own sake but in order to be happy. According to Aristotle, happiness is an activity rather than an emotion or a state. Schopenhauer says, "If we accept that happiness is not automatic, then it puts the onus on us to find and create happiness for ourselves. We can take a more active approach to designing a pleasing life for ourselves."

According to Socrates, by looking back at which decisions have brought you long-term happiness and which have eventually left you feeling regret, you can deepen your self-knowledge (about happiness). Let success follow happiness, said Albert Schweitzer, the humanitarian, prolific author and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He observed that success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Happiness Tips

Always expect happiness. Remember happiness is contagious, therefore, associate with happy people. Be positive and always look at the brighter side in every situation. Try to find happiness in small things - listen to relaxing and uplifting music, watch funny movies that make you laugh, read atleast few pages of an inspiring book or article and take time out to pursue your hobby. Each day do something good for yourself and at least one act to make others happy. Smile more often.

You can create moments of happiness for yourself. Undertake activity which inspires you on a regular basis. It could be few minutes of quiteness or half an hour of excercise or going out in a crowded place with friends or telephonic chat with a loved one. Most of us, while waiting for bigger happiness, loose small moments of happiness which are derived from small activities of our day to day life.

The person who has a job he loves will never have to work a day in his life. If you love what you are doing, you will be happy, so find a job you enjoy doing most. If that seems impossible, do things that interests you. Find meaningful activities that give you a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment.

"If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody." - Chinese Proverb