What is Happiness!

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I was in Class III when I got introduced to the concept of abstract nouns. I was completely floored by that concept. Not that the other concepts were not good enough, but the concept of a noun that can denote an idea, or a state of being; something that does not have a physical existence, but just an existence in thoughts was as exciting as it could be. It is perhaps very difficult to explain the plethora of feelings I used to feel (and still do) whenever I came across an abstract noun. Happiness is one of my favorite abstract nouns.
“An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a quality, action, or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs.” -Wren and Martin
I wonder, can happiness (or any abstract noun, for that matter) be ever defined. How to define something that can never take any physical shape? How to define something which is dependent on an idea, a thought? Are not ideas and thoughts individual specific?!

My thoughts are different than yours…and your ideas are different than mine. Your perception and my perception can be as different, or as similar as anything could ever be. Then, how do we come into an agreement, or a near agreement, of what happiness is! Probably you feel happy when it rains, and I do not. Of all the things it can be perceived as, I for sure believe that this discordance is what best defines happiness (or any abstract concept).
"Happiness depends upon ourselves." - Aristotle
Nobody defines happiness for us. We can define it based on our thoughts, our ideas. In a given situation, maybe everybody else feels sad, but you are the only one who feels happy. It just is the state of being you want to be in. That means, any external influence can never completely define happiness for us. Its all within us. If we want to be happy, we will be.
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." - Marcus Aurelius
Probably, there will be some external factors that try to influence our ideas or our thoughts. But they can never reach from the external world to the surreal incredible world of thoughts, unless we allow them a passage. What does that mean? We are responsible for our own thoughts, because we are the keepers of that passage, of that bridge between both worlds. So, let us decide consciously, what can gain passage, at each moment. That, for sure, can define what happiness really is. So, go ahead... define what defines you, define your thoughts, and then... define what happiness is!
"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."
- Guillaume Apollinaire

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