What would the actual difference be? You have a subjective view of your emotions (and anything else anyway). so believing you are happy would be the same as being happy, as long as you are not aware of the fact that you are only believing in your happiness.
I suspect that there is a difference, but I’m not extremely confident of this. It seems to me that a noticeable fraction of the people I’ve encountered over my life are in decidedly sub-optimal situations, and could with relative simplicity change to a more optimal lifestyle, yet are convinced that their own lifestyle is the best thing ever.
What would the actual difference be? You have a subjective view of your emotions (and anything else anyway). so believing you are happy would be the same as being happy, as long as you are not aware of the fact that you are only believing in your happiness.
I think that someone who merely believed they were happy, and then experienced real happiness, would not want to go back.
I suspect that there is a difference, but I’m not extremely confident of this. It seems to me that a noticeable fraction of the people I’ve encountered over my life are in decidedly sub-optimal situations, and could with relative simplicity change to a more optimal lifestyle, yet are convinced that their own lifestyle is the best thing ever.