Happiness isn't normal Topaz: Did anyone see this article in Time magazine last week?
Anyway, the article was pretty interesting, if not particularly groundbreaking or deep (no surprise there - this is Time Magazine, after all). They interviewed a psycho-therapist whose approach is that happiness is just part of a whole continuum of thought, and that pain/suffering is a constant in that continuum of thought, so rather than to try to avoid it, to embrace it - fundamental principles of Buddhism, btw - and said psycho-therapist offered several different modes of embracing the continuum of thought, some of which are also reflective of various meditation practices.
I don't think happiness is or should be a constant state. I have a problem with the statement "I deserve happiness" or "I deserve _____." While it IS nice, without a doubt, to think about those things, I think it sets you up for a mentality whereby you can't see the forest for the trees. A kind of magical thinking, if you will, that assumes happiness is the inevitable result of achieving a desired object or outcome. But like Christmas, when you got that toy you were drooling over all year, you discovered that it wasn't all that you thought it would be.
That said, however, moments of happiness are very good indeed.
