Clearly they are not the same question. Are you happy is a simple and direct yes or no request. It can be answered with relative ease. It only becomes complicated when the second question becomes involved. If you don't bother to define happiness before you answer then the simple response is sufficient. BUT, and this is an important one, as soon as you start to define the essence of what happiness is, you step far outside the confines of the simple yes or no.
So what is Happiness?
To each one of us, there is a different answer. The only real wisdom I have on this vast question is this: happiness can only exist if it is fluid and able to ride the tides of change.
I remember the first time I told some one that. They looked at me as though I had suddenly grown three more heads. I never thought it was that abstract a thought personally. Your life is constantly changing. Every second you are alive, the world around you is new, though it may seem the same, it never will be. If everything else changes constantly, then so to would happiness or it would become stagnant and lose its value. What comes from happiness when it stagnates? Complacency.
I am not going to start casting judgements on any. If complacent is satisfactory for you then by all means enjoy it. Do not try to tell me, however, that you are happy.
The secret to understanding happiness and its ever changing state comes from accepting that it will never be exactly the same. While it may be true that some things make you feel happy all the time (like a bowl of ice cream perhaps!) there will be times when you simply don't want any. To say then, that ice cream makes you happy all the time, would be untrue. The same is true for anything material, and most other types of things too, as far as I have noticed. Now I know that there are plenty of people that disagree with this concept, and hey, they are entitled to be wrong. (just kidding! everyone should have their own opinions and defend their right to them, but that will be for another time)
Only you can define and find the key to your happiness. That is the lesson I learned along the way. Any one that tells you they know the secret of happiness for your life is trying to sell you something. Once you find it for yourself, your life will be forever changed but the path to that enlightenment can be a hard one.
Happiness follows one of the great principles I have learned:
"The Harder You Look for Something, The Harder IT Will be to Find"
