Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.
Various research groups, including Positive psychology, endeavor to apply the scientific method to answer questions about what "happiness" is, and how we might attain it.
Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics.
Happiness economics suggests that measures of public happiness should be used to supplement more traditional economic measures when evaluating the success of public policy.
Happiness is a fuzzy concept and can mean many things to many people. Part of the challenge of a science of happiness is to identify different concepts of happiness, and where applicable, split them into their components.
Alison Sudol (born December 23, 1984), known professionally as A Fine Frenzy, is an American alternative singer-songwriter and pianist. Her debut album, One Cell in the Sea, was released in 2007, followed in 2009 by Bomb in a Birdcage. Sudol's songs have charted in the United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and France, among other countries. Her music has also been featured on numerous television shows and featured in several major motion pictures. According to her official website, A Fine Frenzy's upcoming album, Pines, will be released in mid- to late-2012.
Born in Seattle, Washington to two dramatic arts teachers, Sudol and both parents moved to Los Angeles after their divorce when she was five years old. She grew up listening to a wide range of music, including Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, and swing. She has stated that her roots are "Scottish, Irish, Polish, and 'a bit' of German."
She graduated from high school at the age of 16, and considered herself "nerdy and quiet." Sudol did not "drink or smoke or do anything like that." She stated in an interview "I was so nervous about going into college like that and super young. I figured I would take two years and try to find out what I was doing with music. And when I was 18, I was just so deep into it that I didn't want to stop."
Joe Bonamassa (born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist and singer. He began his career playing guitar in the band Bloodline, which featured the offspring of several famous musicians (such as Miles Davis, Robby Krieger and Berry Oakley of The Allman Brothers Band). He released his first solo album A New Day Yesterday in 2000, and has since released nine more solo studio albums, four live albums and three live DVDs, along with two albums with the band Black Country Communion and one album in collaboration with vocalist Beth Hart. He tours the world regularly, and has developed a large following in the U.K. especially. His most recent album, Driving Towards The Daylight, reached #2 on the U.K. Top 40 Albums Chart, and he completed an arena tour there in 2012. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Classic Rock Magazine "Breakthrough Artist of the Year" award, and The Guardian said of him: "the 32-year-old from upstate New York has consolidated a reputation as the pre-eminent blues-rock guitarist of his generation".
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. (born July 4, 1938) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. He recorded a number of hits such as "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands". His life was recently the subject of the documentary film Still Bill.
Withers was born the youngest of six children in the small coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia. Raised in nearby Beckley, West Virginia, Withers was twelve years old when his father died. He enlisted with the United States Navy at age eighteen and served for nine years, during which time he became interested in singing and writing songs. Soon after his discharge from the Navy in 1965, he relocated to Los Angeles in 1967 for a musical career.
Withers worked as an assembler for several different companies, including Douglas Aircraft Corporation, while recording demo tapes with his own money, shopping them around and performing in clubs at night. When he debuted with the song "Ain't No Sunshine" he refused to resign his job because of his belief that the music business was a fickle industry and that he was still a novice compared to other acts.
James Riley Blake (born December 28, 1979) is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of April 2012, Blake is ranked World No. 74 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances (10–14 record), whilst his career-high singles ranking is World No. 4. His career highlights include reaching the final of the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup, the semifinals of the Beijing Olympics and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open (2008) and US Open (2005, 2006). His two titles for the United States at the Hopman Cup are an event record. Blake was a key performer for the United States 2007 Davis Cup championship team, going 2–0 in the championship tie vs. Russia at second singles. In 2005, Blake was presented with the Comeback Player of the Year award for his remarkable return to the tour. Later, in 2008, Blake was awarded another honor by the ATP where he was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. On July 3, 2007, Blake's autobiography Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life, which discussed his comeback after his unlucky 2004 season, was released and debuted at No. 22 on the New York Times Best Seller list. He co-wrote this book with Andrew Friedman.
I felt the closing walls
Trouble on the rise
You didn't have to say a word
I saw it in your eyes
Opened up my soul
I showed a view inside
I'm not too proud
To say out loud
I'm happier, I cried
A shield of misty gray
We'll gladly leave behind
A restless youth
Gave way to truth
And now to peace of mind
We'll ride the wings of love
A maze of tears have gone
Good riddance to
The pain we knew
A new day's finally dawned
And I don't wanna run your life
I just wanna share a space
I just wanna be the one who puts
A smile upon your face
Friends will come and go
I don't mind if they do
The role they play
I'm sad to say
Is small compared to you
People will always talk
And I don't care, do you
Smaller minds you'll always find
Have nothing else to do
Oceans rise and fall
And meadows washed in rain
We cast aside the tears we cried
And lived to love again
I told you once before
I'll tell you once again
You make mistakes
That's what it takes
Life fools you now and then
I'm happier to find
That both of us could grow
Mistakes were made
So turn the page
Cuz life goes on, you know
I don't wanna run your life
I just wanna share a space
Let me be the one who puts
A smile upon your face
I'm happier to know
I'm happier to see
That open every door inside
Our lives will still be free
I don't wanna run your life
I just wanna share your space
I just wanna be the one who puts
Say goodbye, lose your friends, make them go, don't need them around
Cause it's time, lose your friends, make them go, was never supposed to be like this
They were too weak, too prone to break
Their needs too deep, their skin too thin
By now you took what was to take
Tear it apart and start again
So go on, if this will make you happier
It got you this far, did what you had to
You've wasted every moment of your Saturdays and your Sundays
You're wasted from the boredom, was never supposed to be like this
Like your father said, just do what was done unto you..always
In your father's steps you'll do what was done unto you
It won't be hard to start again
So go on, if this will make you happier
It got you this far, do what you have to
(Well you knew this would come)
And you're gone now
(And you've left me all alone)
And did it make you happier?
(And you're lost and long gone, don't take it so seriously)
It wasn't that hard
(Go on and get goin, I'm fine on my own)
Did what you had to
(We got you this far, finally got it figured out)
One more itch you son of a bitch
You've been wasting my time...always
And now you're half awake
You bend till you break
And make the same mistakes...always
So go on, if this will make you happier
It got you this far, do what you have to
(Well you knew this would come)
And you're gone now
(And you've left me all alone)
And did it make you happier?
(And you're lost and long gone, don't take it so seriously)
It wasn't that hard
(Go on and get goin, I'm fine on my own)
Did what you had to
Quick kid quips so harsh n cynical
Touches stricken
Cold n clinical
What a transformation to behold
But I don't like this new, I like the old
It's not the words that make it final
You've said such things before to rival them
But it's how you say them, now that's changed
Cold but sympathetic, all the same
You'd like to convince me that I'll be better off
So you go on
And I'll never be happier
I'll be happier
You go on, yeah, you go on
You'll be gone n I'll be happier
Shoot me with your rubber bullets
Your finger's on the trigger, pull it
I know you want the suffering to end
And so, it is forgivable my friend
It's all to convince me that I'll be better off
You go on
And I'll be happier
You go on
And I'll be happier
You go on, yeah
You go on
You'll be gone n I'll be happier
Say what you mean, what you mean
Is you'll be happier without me
Without me
Without me, oh
You won't convince me that I'll be better off
So you go on and I'll be happier
I'll be happier
You go on n you go on
You'll be gone and I'll be gone
You go on and I'll be happier
You go on and I'll be happier
You go on, you go on
You go on and I'll go on
And I'll be happier
(you go on and I'll be happier
You go on and I'll be happier