Understanding the assignment....

I think often times in life, people lose sight of what's really important. I once read a cute story online that went a little something like this:

When I was a little girl, my mother always told me that happiness was the most important thing in life. When I got a little older and I went to school, my teacher asked the class what we wanted to be when we grew up. I raised my hand, and confidently responded, "Happy". The teacher looked at me and said, "I'm afraid you don't understand the assignment". I looked back at my teacher and said, "I'm afraid you don't understand life."

Being the person I am, I think about this story from time to time.

Happiness is such a complex emotion. It is involved in so many other feelings. And yet, people go without it for so many reasons.

If you think about someone that you truly love, doesn't thinking about that person make you happy? Your mind is always making connections between people, places and things that make you happy; and other emotions. This is of course, all unique to the individual. For me, when I think of being warm and cozy, I'm happy. When I think about my animals, I'm happy. When I think about making other people happy, I'm happy. Ok, I think you get the idea. But the point is, your mind and body will fight to make these connections to happiness. Even if you think of something that has an element of sadness to it, for instance the loss of a loved one. While this is often the most painful experience a person might go through, there is always happiness to be found in the memory of that person. You think of the wonderful times you shared with that person, and you smile.

Laughter is one of the most widely recognizable signs of happiness. I believe that people should laugh every day. Next time someone makes you laugh, in the middle of all that is going on, go inside yourself and recognize the feeling that is going through your body at that very moment. That feeling is the reason human beings have an innate desire to be happy.

Since happiness and laughter seem like such wonderful things, it is only natural that we should crave more, right?

So why then do people learn to live without it? There obviously isn't a single, or correct, answer to this question. But it is something that I think about quite often. As human beings, we can make the mistake of substituting other emotions and feelings for happiness. Almost a way of tricking ourselves into believing that we are "happy", when in reality it is something entirely different. But if for a short period of time, we can fake ourselves out, and the happiness seems genuine, then what do we need to change?

There are a whole mess of factors that come into play which determine human behavior. And by no means am I trying to make this process sound simple. It just fascinates me that there are people out there that choose to go through life unhappy. Their lack of happiness is most likely brought on by something that they can control, yet they do nothing about it. I often wonder, who told them that it was ok to settle for less than happy?

.....perhaps they just didn't understand the assignment.