Why do people get upset when I say that happiness is a personal choice?

Question: Why do people get upset when I say that happiness is a personal choice!?

Others don't make you happy, you choose to be!. Yet people constantly get angry when I say this!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Because people who are unhappy all the time often believe that it's everyone else's fault!. They think they're unhappy because of situations that they can't control, or because other people, or whatever else!. Saying to them that it is a choice does two things, it points out that they are choosing to be miserable, and probably hits a nerve with them (it's probably something they know deep down)!. It also says to them that their feelings aren't valid!. People get really touchy about that, especially people who make the choice not to be happy all the time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think the anger comes from you telling them how they're supposed to feel!. Sure there's the power of positive thinking!. Stinking thinking can bring a person down!. Choices in ones life can add or detract to one's happiness!. But, like anything else, it's not all powerful!. Like send a person to a Nazi concentration camp, tell them their whole family has been killed, and then say the reason you're unhappy about this is because you choose to be!.!.!.!.!.well don't be surprised if a little anger comes your way!.
Can you see that!? It's kind of like armchair quarterbacking!. It's easy to say a person's supposed to be happy no matter what, but you never know exactly what that person is enduring now and what they've had to go through in the past!. Is every person in the funny farm there right now because they chose to be!? Why is it that you make all these proper choices and other's do not!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

I believe in a whole different way when it comes to happiness!.
But,that doesn't make me right and you wrong! Hey- different strokes for different folks! Live and let live!
As long as a person is happy, why should it matter how they got there!?!?!?
It is 'your' life! You can believe and say what you want!. If someone has a problem with this, it's "their" problem! Let them keep it all to themselves!. They will try to make it yours too, by using many devices, but, if the shoe don't fit; don't wear it!!
Everyone has "choice" in life! How they choose to apply it is 'their' choice! :DWww@QuestionHome@Com

Dear Friend,

I totally agree with you!. And don't take it personally when someone disagrees with you!. We need to be more like "ducks" and let what people say!.!.!. roll off our backs!.

There are various ways of happiness and ultimately we choose to be happy or, not to!. Unfortunately, immature people expect 'others' to make them happy as though it is 'their' responsibility!.!.!.when it is not!.

Psalm 3:13 says, "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding!."

Tender blessings!.!.!.and be happy! hahahahaWww@QuestionHome@Com

Hmmm, yes it is odd and hard question to answer but I will take a stab at guessing!. I don't think they even know why they get angry when you say that but I would gues it's because they feel that they're only happy when life doesn't force them to be sad!. So they feel that happiness isn't really in there controll!. If only they could find their will power to see past all those things that happen that seems to force them to be unhappy to them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

well happiness is a personal choice in certain circumstances, with everyday life!. *ie if you drop your ice cream on the ground, will you let it ruin your whole day!?

however, happiness is not always simply a choice when things work outside of your control!. Death, money problems, family issues, love complications, etc!. affect your heart so dearly that happiness is not simply a choice you can make!. You follow your heart and your own feelings on these issues take over!. Everyone's humans and can't always control how they feel!.

hope that helped or if it just sounded confusing sorryWww@QuestionHome@Com

I agree with you!. It is a choice and once one realizes that to be true!. They can choose to be happy!. Have you read!.
Key to Yourself by Venice J!. Bloodworth or
Infinite Self by Stuart Wilde both are very good books!. I am sure you would understand them and appreciate them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

i do believe that happiness is a personal choice!. you choose to be happy!. we all choose to be happy!. even if problems arise, still, we try our best to be happy because we don't want to carry burdens!. indeed, happiness is a personal choice!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Happiness is a state of mind!.!. a homeless person may find happiness with a good hot meal on a cold night; a millionaire may be miserable because had had to settle for the second best restaurant in town as the best one could not accommodate his reservation!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

i think their upset cuz it makes it sound like it's their own fault they're not happy!. which it is!.!.!.but they don't want to hear that, they'd rather have something more comforting like "it'll be ok, things will get better"Www@QuestionHome@Com

The people who get angry are probably the miserable ones who blame their misery on everyone else!. I completely agree with you!. It is up to each person as an individual to make them self happy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Maybe they get angry because you sound arrogant!. Happiness is a personal choice, yet there are always extenuating circumstances that do change things!.!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I have faced innumerable horrors in my life and have found a way to be at peace and content with the hand I have been dealt!. I was quite amazing, actually! I made it through rape, incest, being beaten nearly to death as a child!. I remember once when I was out of work, a single mom with no savings undergoing cancer treatment!. I had to fly from PA to Boston, (so rare was my cancer that it was the only place in the world other than Tokyo that would see me for my treatments) every other week for treatments and checkups!. I had 16 surgeries in 18 months and still managed to smile and then!.!.!. the last straw: Money had all been spent for airfare, and silly incidentals like the electric bill and heat!.!.!. I had no food in my house!.!.!. all avenues were exhausted for financial help and I had two children to feed!. I was indebted to everyone for any number of things not covered by insurance and the airfare costs!.!.!. I didn't know anyone personally with money to spare!. I went to a friend who mentioned he knew a guy in the area who had quite a cheerful disposition who had heard my story and stated he wanted to offer some "assistance"!. The friend gave my number to this guy who set up a lunch date with me!. Instead of this "Happy & helpful" putz I met, listening and hearing that financial help of the most urgent kind was needed, he got a little "lost" in my story!. He wasn't hearing me state why I couldn't take any more!.!.!. He simply stated, in a very chipper, I-have-no-stinking-clue-right now tone, that, "Well, you can either help yourself, and be happy, or sit around crying and feeling sorry for yourself!.!.!. that'll get you nowhere!" Now, while this idiot may have been theoretically correct!.!.!. I will stand by the fact that he could not have been more wrong by the way he handled the situation!.

*No one of us has the right to say this to anyone who is suffering enough to cry to us about it!. We have no idea what may be going on behind closed doors or in someone's heart and head!. In theory, you are right, but in reality many of us are not raised with the tools we need to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps!. Some of us have serious chemical imbalances that impair our emotional coping skills!. Some of us are weary to the brink of utter despair, and for someone to make a statement like that when another human being reaches out for help!.!.!. well, we owe it to them to help them out of the pit BEFORE we get all pious!.

Bottom line:
Crapping on your hurting fellow man with a blaket statement like this, when we don't have perfect insight is a personal choice, too!!! I choose not to handle hurting people in such a callous and unfeeling way!Www@QuestionHome@Com