laughs I saw this question right above "How do you deal with stress?" and it just made me laugh. >.> I also was just thinking about posting my own question a few moments ago along the same lines.

I'm not sure I can put a 'scale' on it. But others in my life consider me almost manic...or just plain weird. Being happy so that you smile as you sit on the bus, or walk down the street and burst into song regularly means there is probably 'something wrong with that person'.

But let me describe in something a bit more quantitative. At my highest joyousness (or appreciation) there are certain physical sensations that almost without fail manifest. For example, there is an expanding feeling from my thymus (heart) area, and this often expands in tingles throughout my chest and the rest of my body...sometimes even causing a shudder through my body (something like a shiver down the spine). My hairs stand on end...and I can almost not help but to allow a gentle smile to spread over my face. In certain cases (after experiencing a usual expanded and light bodied feeling) I even almost lose sensation of my body...even though I may be walking down the street.

I sometimes resist it - but rather perplexedly only when I want to feel it. I've been learning that though I can guide myself to feeling it when I may not be...I cannot 'jump' to those feelings. If I start thinking to myself "I gotta feel good!!" then I begin resisting - and thus do not feel good. But it feels good to feel good (duh) and so I like to be there often as possible...and when I am not (say, when I have just had something happen I haven't experienced before which throws me a bit off balance) I tend to want to race back to that feeling as fast as possible. When instead...I actually get there faster by ... not trying quite so much to feel joy.