Piecing Together Happiness

What makes us happy? An age old question that today is still trying to be discovered and completely understood. This past school year in college, I took an English course in the spring semester that was very writing intensive. Among the few papers we had to write, the first and probably the most intriguing to me was the one centered around actually trying to determine for ourselves what makes us happy. We read an article from online magazine, the Atlantic, actually titled What Makes Us Happy? by writer Joshua Wolf Shenk, in which he wrote about a specific Harvard case study investigating the key to happiness.

"Is there a formula--some mix of love, work, and psychological adaption--for a good life?" Shenk questioned. Perhaps amidst all the experimentation and critical thinking we are overlooking the true meaning to living happily. Maybe it isn't about trying so hard to find the secret to being happy, maybe it's more about accepting happiness for what it is -- simplicity. Sometimes the simplest things in life can be the hardest to understand. We as humans, with our inquisitive nature, always try to find complexity within simplicity. Maybe we should just take a smile for a smile, a hug for a hug, and love for love, because when it all comes down to it, they are all like intricate little puzzle pieces that each have a place within a much bigger puzzle. Once we have our pieces together, so to say, we can assemble the puzzle and admire the big picture. However, sometimes in life we may lose sight of how important each one of these "puzzle pieces" really is-- it only takes one to make the puzzle incomplete. Once we find out what we're missing, we can, with a sigh of relief, finally realize that our "puzzle" is complete and that we are finally happy.

Link to Joshua Wolf Shenk's Article:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/7439/

Brain Games and Words of Wisdom

Several weeks ago I came up with the quirky idea to perform a sort of psychology experiment of my own -- on myself -- to demonstrate the brains plasticity in forming new neural connections . While it may sound confusing at a glance, it was actually quite simple and required little more than about 3 minutes of my time each day and a tooth brush. Now before we go saying, "What could you possibly do with a tooth brush?" allow me to explain...

Generally, I am a right handed person and the mere thought of brushing my teeth with my left hand at the time was utterly confusing and extremely frustrating -- I just wasn't coordinated enough. But each and every day I would take the time to brush my teeth with my left hand until I got progressively better at it -- a sign that my brain was actually "rewiring" itself in a sense, and these "wirings" became increasingly stronger the more I worked at my left handed tooth brushing. Overall, it would appear that we as people were born for self-improvement and all it takes is a bit of practice and commitment.

Before we start doubting our abilities to achieve certain things, I think it goes to show that practice really makes perfect -- I mean, after all I can easily brush my teeth now with my left hand. But whatever it is that you do, it should appear to be relatively clear that with some time and effort we can achieve much greater things in life. Maybe you want to become a better football player, all you need to do is practice. Maybe you want to become a lawyer, all you need to do is practice. Maybe you just want to be simple like me and perform your own little science experiment of your own, all it takes is practice. Whether we're playing sports or studying our butts off, it all remains evident that we're not perfect and that there is always room for improvement; that we are beings who constantly undergo change and have the ability to become better. All it takes is a little bit of practice.