Happiness, for all I know is basically the ability to ignore sad and inconvenient truths about the world around you. The smarter you are, the harder it is to maintain this delusion.
I have learnt to find some joy in watching my young kids. They haven't been corrupted/encumbered by it all. Secondly, the hope is that as they grow the world will slowly improve with them as shown by some long term data. Third, meditating helps! it helps me get out of my own thinking framework and make some breathing room for myself.
Lastly, I feel there is a very important reality that we all are largely unaware of it is that (IMHO) we live our lives in log scale, meaning generally every new experience creates much lighter impression than the one by say a few years ago. if you accept that (barring physical discomfort) world is not such a bad place compare to even a few decades ago.
World isn't perfect for sure but it is indeed eye-opening to sometimes check how much worse things were as recently as 70s and 80s. Helps to put today's issues into perspective, and be a bit more content.
