How do you measure Happiness?

Tomorrow I'm facilitating a session with the Job Seekers' Network on Goal Setting that focuses on times of happiness. But how do we measure happiness? No-one can measure its height, its length, its ph balance, its blood pressure. No-one can define its colour, its molecular make-up, even its nature. Yeah, we know endorphins are a hormonal indicator of its presence...but how do we measure it? We can't. It's like love. If I feel happy, then I am happy and no-one else can measure it, besides the size of the smile on my face and the laughter in my eyes but other people show happiness in different ways, so that indicator changes with the person observed. Feelings can't be measured. Feelings move us. And what about animals? I went to Auckland Zoo today and if it wasn't for the fences and human-made structures, you could easily imagine them in the wild. I felt that they looked happy and healthy. Even the tigers. Anyone who saw then would agree.

And I saw a Kiwi bird! It was dark because they're nocturnal so there's only red light and a green line showing the way. It takes a while for the eyes to adjust after being in the ozone free light glare of NZ sunshine (I actually walked into someone!) That made me happy. That and seeing the white rhinos too. Seeing happy animals made me feel happy. Spending time getting to know the teen mums and their babies made me happy too.