Happiness is not something you need to chase; it is your natural state of being and is always available to you. There are literally thousands of self-help books and gurus out there now in the world, all touting ideas about what it takes to be happy. In fact, the pursuit of happiness is so popular that the formal birth of a new field of psychology called "positive psychology" was implemented in 1998 by Dr. Martin Seligman, the then president of the American Psychological Association. Since that time many major studies have been developed in an effort to finally determine what it actual takes to be happy. This is even more popular today with turmoil at every corner of the world. Therefore, with happiness now a genuine field of scientific study more organizations are joining the effort to find this conscious feeling of joy.
My opinion is outside the box of typical scientific thinking and perceived professional explanation. It's not happiness that we need to pursue to feel joy; it's what happiness is not that should be addressed.
When you came into this world you entered in a natural state of happiness and bliss. You knew you came here to fulfill a definite spiritual purpose and were excited about the journey which you had personally planned out for yourself. This natural state of being is still there anchored deeply within you, however, it has been covered over by a smoke screen of influences and ego based dogma. This dogma requires daily attention to produce the state of sadness that is overpowering your natural happiness. Spiritual seekers understand that you always receive more of what you focus on. By focusing on the negative dogma of life-situations and perceived problems you unintentionally blinded your natural state of happiness. The good news is, with a little effort, this negative process can be reversed and your natural state of happiness can again be brought to the forefront of your life, everyday.
The best way to renew the natural state of happiness is through a conscious process of removing the situations from your life that are clouding your natural happiness and spiritual life plan. This is not something which can be corrected overnight, as it has taken your mind (ego) years of manipulation to hypnotize you into the place you are today. However, once you truly decide to choose a life of happiness, over one of sadness, then and only then will you be ready to start the detoxification process. The truth, whether you realize it or not, is that you are addicted to sadness, and that addiction is the root cause of your current negative reality. As with any other addiction, you first need to acknowledge that you have a problem. When you freely do that the recovery process can begin to have a positive impact on your life. And, the really great part is that you have a choice, to start detoxifying immediately, or continue to blame your life-situation on other outside influences.
Happiness is a state of consciousness; therefore, if you move through life based upon a state of unconscious illusion, you subject yourself to the influences of others rather than your own true nature. It's when you eliminate the things (form based mind dogma) from your life that cause sadness that you will awaken to the true joys of life. Then you will begin to focus on, and actually fully embrace, the happiness within you.
Through conscious awareness of your current sadness addiction you can reverse the hypnotic trance you currently acknowledge as reality. The secret is to balance all the categories of your life, such that, they are in harmony with your original life plan for being here. When you learn how to do that you will be happy everyday of your life. It personally took me over fifty years to finally understand this deep spiritual truth and to acknowledge that I was living a life of unconscious random clutter. To make the choice to return to the happiness within was not hard to do, and once I found an easy conscious plan to do so life began to change immediately.