What (if anything) is holding you back from real happiness?

Yes, very true! Well said. I also believe, happiness is the inner joy and inner emotion in ourselves. It may be different for different people. Heaven and hell is withing ourselves...it is for us how we perceive and feel it. Good Post indeed!

oh my dear friend you are right...setting our happiness in the future is a mistake, a common one, indeed...we are always unsatisfied, we are always seeking something else, something more and we are at risk of losing what we already have and the love we have in our life...as far as myself is concerned, I was the one who thought I needed to be loved ..by friends, by a man ..in order to be happy..well, now I need friends and their love but I have learnt that I need to love myself first of all and that I needed to find a place for me in my heart..now I am here to say that I need that my close family is well to call me happy...but of course there is a thing I miss now...and it is a good job..then I think I could call me a quiet and peaceful person even though not a happy one...but anyway..I am feeling better than months before so I guess I could say I am quite satisfied with what I did!!!

Of Course not haveing money can hold ya back but then you have to turn that around and decide to live life as it comes your way. Live for the day not for the future for it might not come ever.

I agree- too many people come up with things they want to do or need before they say they are happy- I am like this at times- but for the most part I try to make the best of what I have- I earned it- Life is what we make it- Nothing more nothing less- Sure I'd love to win the lottery and retire at 34- but I'm happy having a great job I love and a wonderful family!

I think everyone will agree with me when I say that the only thing that hold anyone back from real happiness is discontentment. If we should be content with the lives we live and lives we have then we will all be really happy. Not wanting for more of whatever will make us happy. If we have a little money instead of more money but is content with that little money then we will be happy. If we only have a beat up old volkswagen for a car but is not wishing for more then we will be happy. I'm going the extremes here but I wanted to get my point across. Our happiness lies in our contentment. If we are content then we have a real chance at happiness

i will be happy once I've received help for my anxiety issues, which is helping me move forward in life and do the things I enjoy, like study and play in a band. That has really held me back and I am doing something about it now.

Actually, I'm happy with my life now but I have my very own perspective about happiness. Well, as you said some people might be said I'll be happy if I have lot of money, have lot of love and so on. Thank to God because I have all of them now on. Based on my experienced (before I got all my wishes and I was in a bad suffered) and after I got all my wishes and all the pain was gone, I did learn something that really valuable in mylife. To be very honest when I got money, I'm happy. When I got love, well, for sure I'm happy. But those happiness could not be compared with "love". What I mean here is I'll be in such big smiles and happy if those people who really close to me feel so happy and glad. It's fine if their happiness does not bring any goodness in mylife. I'll be so happy whenever I know they are happy for their life and smiles although those people won't love me any longer.

No, I think the happiness should be found inside, not outside. The people who are always waiting for something can not be really happy. They always want more and more. They are always unsatisfied with their life,because they always run after their dream. ( I can not translate it well:( If anything hold me back from real happiness, than that is ME. I know I have to notice the happiness in my days, my surrounding. As I said in other discussions, I always say thanks to my God for the life I may live. I have dreams too, but I can find my happiness in my simple life. So I try not to hold myself back. I do not understand these sentences you wrote, but that is true "I myself am heaven and hell"

someone told me that we can't change what happened to us, but we can change how we look at it and handle it. This person and I don't get along very well, but I have to say, this time he is right. I believe that we have to fight and defend what is fair, but along the way, I forgot how to forgive. It is true that if my cause is fair and just, my wish is always granted when the time is right. My inability to forgive, is the perfect boost to keep me fighting, but it is also my downfall. Once the fight is over, there is nothing to fight for and only peace should exist. I am still learning to forgive and find my peace.

I am happy in the here and now. I don't wish for anything to make me happy because I am happy now. I have a husband that has stayed steady by my side for 34 years. I have a son who is married and has been for thirteen years. He has three beautiful children, my grandkids. So I have a very happy life and live with the knowledge that God has blessed me very much.

Hello polachicago!:-) When I think of myself and family, I think that I am the happiest person on earth. I have money for all my necessities (or at least my necessities are according to my income), I have a very good job already secured for me, I have great partner, family and friends. I don't think there is really anything that I need more. When I see my friends, both offline and offline, in problems, much worse than I can ever think of my own, I tend to think that I must be the happiest person. But it's not true in reality actually, at least not in totality. I just need a little news of someone's misery to lose my state of happiness and become grieved. There is a lot of misery in the world, going on with my extended family, as I consider every human a part of my extended family. How can I be happy when they are in trouble? I think my real happiness will come when every body is happy. I have a theological side about the issue too which goes along the idea already presented but I would refrain from it so as not to sound preachy here!:-)

I agree, true happiness never comes from achievement or acquisition of anything. This sort of happiness is transient. We may feel great for a time, but we will soon become accustomed to it. Everything like that devolves to "nothing much". You have said exactly what I think, and I would add that true happiness in not about laughing and smiling but about knowing one's self. It is always there and all we need to do is work out how to remove the barriers that are preventing us from realising it.

i am a simple man. i would be very happy if my mother-in-law stops stalking me.

I think my depression and low self esteem/self doubt... is holding me back from experiencing alot of happiness.Its difficult to deal with those things, even when all my life I have been told I am beautiful and a great person~I am thankful for those comments but when your down and can't see or feel the way you want to or see what others comment on its quite hard. Do we ever truly reach pure happiness??? I would like to think we can~I guess thats where my faith comes in:)

For me, what is holding me back from true happiness at the moment is my physical health. It is the only part of my life in which I can't seem to make much progress... having been born with serious health conditions and only developed more as life went on (and I'm only 26!). So that is what I am working on right now, both coming to terms with my body as it is and doing work to make it as good as it can be. I am arranging my treatment plans as well as possible, working on all levels (medical, dietary, lifestyle, emotional, spiritual, etc). =)

for me being happy is pretty easy, i have a simple life, i work hard and i enjoy, i dont keep everything too much in mind, i am happy simple beating a level on a game, getting a wish happy birthday, finding a dollar on the floor, or be able to buy something that i been wanting for in a long time cheap. ect, i think today people make too much out of everything, they need to live it up simple up their life alittle.

I think you will always want for something better or extra no matter how rich you become or how loved you are... it's a true person that can sit back and enjoy their lives and not worry about adding to it too much...

true happyness comes from with in and you have to be happy with yourself before you can make others happy. I belive i am happy there are things i still want but i have happyness around me

I think what is holding me back is my lack of confidence and courage. I tend to get thrown by any setback. I think, too, I allow others, (one person in particular)to ruin my mood or become less confident in myself, so I end up just giving up. For instance, I was feeling positive and happy about some goals I made. Then I called my husband who is out of town. By the end of the phone call, I felt beaten down, and I began to think, "Why bother?"

I am happy with my life as it is, but I know that I will be happier when I earn a bit more money (finances are tight right now) and when my parents work through their problems. I used to be held back from real happiness a lot before, but then I discovered what was really important in life.