I know this sounds like a question an alien who just arrived to earth would ask, but please hear me out. I'm autistic and have never understood what people mean when they say they are "happy". By this I don't mean people who say they are happy in the moment, I understand that just fine, rather I mean when people say they are happy as in their lives are happy and they are just happy in general. I don't understand how to measure this. Nobody is happy all the time, as there are always unpleasant experiences in your day-to-day life, so that's not what overall happiness means. I feel like it couldn't be that there is nothing they would change about their lives either; even the "happiest person in the world" would still change things about the world or their life if they could. Many people say they are happy but still wish they would win the lottery or something like that, so that's not it either. Does happy mean there is a high ratio of time spent happy/content to time spent uncomfortable or unpleasant feeling? Does it mean you are skilled in coping with these unpleasant experiences? Does it mean these unpleasant experiences are mild in severity? Does it mean you have accomplished all or the majority of your life goals/dreams? Does it mean your happy experiences are far more pleasant than your bad experiences are unpleasant? Like I genuinely don't understand how people can say the overall quality of their lives when every day is a set of ups and downs, even if they're mild. How do you measure your overall happiness? Like for myself, I don't consider myself a happy person, but I don't consider myself a sad one either. My life has many unpleasant parts to it but I have what I need to get by and I still have good days. I'm just a person with a life who feels a variety of emotions every day. If you have an answer to this, I would greatly appreciate it if you expressed it as literally or objectively as possible; I am not good with metaphorical language.