there are mental states, moods or whatever that are recognizably enjoyable, and people experiencing that if asked likely would self-report something indicating an absence of discontent, or an absence of debilitating discontent, however the guy that liked to write his dreams down and helped decode them with the assistance of cocaine, it may have been, whoever anyway, how they said it
much of it is, in non-technical terms, generated by fun brain bubbles, the effervescence of the internal environment, which can be depleted by excessive work, too many worries, poor diet, malnutrition, disease, chemical insult, even variously and importantly bad luck
there are all sorts of bad luck, though some people don’t believe it exists, fun brain bubbles are meant to help avoid bad luck, or put another way optimize for good luck, at least make effective an appreciation of whatever gives even modest satisfaction
I wouldn’t recommend looking too hard for such a modest thing, encouraged by others to indulge comparative mechanisms of the social operations of the cognitive apparatus, to go making that a primary way, sort of untethered wandering comparisons, much as the force of culture is somewhat invested in that, inclines it, a persons ego could end up lost in there, on the treadmill of envy and jealousy, all made to appear quite respectable of course
so, i’d suggest, a modest look at what happiness is, or could be, first may require a deconstruction of the Lie, and the latter isn’t a small task, and part of that is being sold ideas about what happiness is, where you might get it, should or ought get it, and the reality is the Lie is there waiting, before you are born or even conceived, it anticipates you
