h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think that the feeling of waking up in the morning and feeling hte warmth of another body beside you, or at least the warm spot they leave in the bed for a while having got up, is the best thing in the world.

However as I haven't experienced this for a couple of months I'm currently making do with Chocolate.

Yep, sunlight streaming in the window.... watching the person you love sleeping... and then they move their hand over to touch you while sleeping, not even aware they're doing it.

Yep, that's definitely one of the best things in life. I'm not sure about *the* best thing, though. But it's one of, at least.

What’s the best thing in the world??? What kinda of a question is that? If this a breading question cause if it is I would have to say "Toast does anybody want any toast?"

Personally I would have to take this question to a more philosophical level and say that the best thing in the world is to be happy. So what brings happiness, for happiness is the abstract the joy of being ... but to make it short a good meal, with a good wine followed, by good sex, topped of with chocolate and sleep ...


That is of course assuming your into that kinda thing

What’s the best thing in the world??? What kinda of a question is that? If this a bready question cause if it is I would have to say "Toast does anybody want any toast?"

Personally I would have to take this question to a more philosophical level and say that the best thing in the world is to be happy. So what brings happiness, for happiness is the abstract the joy of being ... but to make it short a good meal, with a good wine followed, by good sex, topped of with chocolate and sleep ...


That is of course assuming your into that kinda thing

OK... I agree that the right answer to a question like "What is the best thing in the world?" is "to be happy"... You're right...

...but... this leads to another question... a whole set of them, in fact...

What is happiness? Is there a perfect definition? What does it take to be happy?

I'd be interested to know the opinions of all you in the forum...

Just some points to get the discussion going...

What is happiness? Well... a state which you don't want to change? Lack of unhappiness? A feeling of contentness and wellbeing? The absence of bad things? The presence of good things? If yes, what good things?

Is there a perfect definition? Or is happiness different for everyone? That is, could you name a set of conditions, or a situation, in which absolutely everyone would be happy? Or will everyone want something, if slightly, different?

What does it take to be happy? Well... *smiles* Some would say "love"... But is that enough? Is there anything else? Like health, for example?

Well... I think you get the point...

(and sorry if that's repeating something that's been already said... I admit I haven't read *all* of the backlog... )

Pouring delicious dark chocolate over your lover's best parts and eating it off. Then having him give you a massage after the sex. Sex, chocolate and a massage. Just no way to beat that.

Well, I would define happiness as an almost physical feeling. It is short - ish. LIke an orgasm. There is a German expression "warm around the heart" - and that is what it feels like, too.

That, and the feeling of plain contentment that everything is OK with your life when you wake up every morning. But without the contrasting unhappiness or discontent, you can't appreciate it.

I'm afraid I have to take a more practical approach to happiness than most. I have disthymia, which is a genetic predisposition towards depression. Chopin and Virginia Woolf had this also, and I would guess Anne Rice is the same based on her descriptions of herself and her writing habits. Where something might get most people down for a few days or a week, I may stay down for months or even years. My brain's ability to rebound from temporary sadness is hindered by chemical processes that are still not understood. Conventional drugs to treat depression don't have any effect on me.

For this reason, my happiness has a lot to do with not skipping meals, sticking to a regular sleep schedule, healthy exercise, and avoiding undue stress. The maintenance of my health is literally the cornerstone of my happiness. Only if I stick to my silly regimen can I enjoy the chocolate, sex, and whatnot.

On the upshot, people with disthymia can be tremendously creative. I would never give up my music or writing for a drug's cure. And I *do* appreciate happiness more than most when I get it. The same things make me happy as most people, just less often.

And still... I think what I said is most true... happiness is the absence of bad things... and of a bad conscience...

I know that "warm around the heart" feeling that you mentioned TC, I've felt it many times throughout my life. It's very hard to put into words, and I guess that's the closest I could ever come to it.

I've a feeling that there might be another kind of happiness that comes from contentment. I was out working one evening (I used to deliver magazines around London), and for no apparent reason, a sense of incredible calm descended upon me. If that sounds a bit like biblical prose, I make no apologies, because that's exactly how it happened - it started at the top of my head and went down to my feet in about 5 seconds. Now, you have to remember that driving around London is pretty stressful, even around midnight, and I used to find it more stressful than most, but for the rest of the night, I was in a state of bliss, and nothing bothered me.

When I woke up next day, it had gone, and nothing like it has happened again since. So, although I've already talked about chocolate much earlier in this thread, I think I'd have to say that utter contentment - freedom from being affected or worried about the woes of the world and of other people - is what brings happiness. This sounds like a very Buddhist idea... anybody know enough about Buddhism to throw a light on it?

Chocolate rates pretty highly, especially proper Belgian chocolate. Belgian chocolate with Belgian beer (the traditional stuff, not the Eurofizz nonsense like Stella) is even better. A good pint (or three) of real ale at the end of a good walk in the Dales beats most things.

This feeling is well known to pregnant women and is as irrational a phenomenon as it is in its choice of when it hits you. I've always put it down to hormones.

It may also be (and this is a wild theory from someone who has no idea what she's talking about) a reaction of the brain to a stress situation, releasing those endorphins that are cropping up in all the forums these days. Perhaps that's what you went through, the mind just flushing out some good feelings because you hadn't had any lately, like your libido (sorry to use that analogy again) will suddenly flare up if left unsatisfied for some time.

Or maybe you had eaten something which has this effect on you. I have forgotten the word, but the Japanese have a name for it - it is something indefinable in certain foods which creates a good feeling. Chocolate has it, of course, which is why it appears so often in this forum, and pasta is supposed to make you happy too. Try and remember what you had had before this experience, maybe you'll be lucky and be able to reproduce the effect.

Something no one's mentioned yet here is smells. Perhaps your "happiness wave" was caused by a slight whiff of a smell coming in through the window or the air conditioning or car ventilator which took your subconscious back to the cosy days of babyhood - and back again to RL before you realised what had happened - except that you were left with this good feeling.

Or a sound triggered it off, a chord of a song on the radio, a horn, a bell. Something that reminded you of the blissful moment when you had finished drinking at your mother's breast all those years ago and were warm and dry and full up and about to fall asleep.

One of the best things in the world is being able to rabbit on here and know someone, somewhere will read it and may even know what I'm talking about.

I agree with you Trillian's, about the feeling of contentment that occurs sometimes when you are pregnant. And my best guess is that it is the body taking over, when we are not aware or in control. We really have no idea what the body is capable of doing to protect its self.

Hmm I think it´s interesting with this debate. You have all in the attempt to find the best thing in the world described things that make you happy. But nobody(I think) has so far realized that you´re all basically saying the same thing. The best thing in the world is happiness

...and happiness, for me, is listening to Beethoven. One of the best things in the world.

Sleep.
Oh, I am so tired. If only I could allow myself to just curl up and fall asleep right now.

My Family and Friends are the best thing in the world to me!

R :o)

Yeah, it could have been any one of those things, but can't recall for sure. It was at least 10 years ago that it happened, and some days I can't even remember what I had for breakfast - and I have the same thing for breakfast almost every day!

I'm wondering now if it was some kind of passing 'enlightenment', because it really did feel like the travails of the world had been completely removed from my understanding. Nothing that anyone did to me that evening would have bothered me. Thinking about it now, I wouldn't even describe it as happiness, I was so far beyond being happy. The only words I have to describe it are "utter contentment". In that state, I'd still have been concerned about other people, but their suffering wouldn't have made me angry or frustrated.

I'm surprised too that smells haven't been mentioned. One particularly happy moment that sticks in my mind is laying down amongst some bluebells and inhaling that wonderful aroma. It was a sunny day, and there was a skylark singing above. England at its best.

That's the sort of thing. You're making me homesick.

Smells. Definately. Sometimes when I walk past a (proper) German bakery out wafts (for about half a second) the smell of the baker's van which used to deliver to the Married Quarters (yuk) in Detmold in the 60s. I'm right back there, and have all the cares & worries of a 5 year old. Then I get a met melancholy that I'll never get it back. But those few moments are Bliss.
Also: getting home from work to see two happy, dirty little faces pressed against the window to greet me; waking up in the middle of the night and realising it's still before midnight and there are 5 more hours of sleep; crawling, hungover, out of your tent on the first morning of a rock festival......