Yes. It's true. I am most happy in life when I am in a classroom interacting with students making all those cogwheels turn in little brains. It's almost pathetic how my serotonin and dopamine levels soar when I am teaching. It's my panacea for life. As long as I am working (teaching), I can climb any mountains, ford any stream, overcome any difficulties.
I'm strange I know, but I think it's pretty obvious why teaching makes me happy. Psych 101: Feeling happy is directly correlated to how much meaning and satisfaction you find in work and how connected you are to your community. Not happy in life? You either are not finding meaning and satisfaction in your work or you do not feel connected to your fellow man. It's that simple. Teaching = both. I find meaning in the work and I connect to people aka my students and viola I'm happy. And if I am happy, everything else in my life tends fall in line and get it order. Not very deep, I know. But it works!!
And "cynic" alert: it's also why religion works. As much as I value my faith and my relationship with Jesus and my spirituality, I also know that (and know why?) religion is, yes, an opiate for the masses. See above paragraph: it helps people find meaning in life and help connect people to their fellow man. Maybe I am oversimplifying some of the benefits of Christianity, but it's also true, albeit a simplification. It's part of the whole. And yeah, I think God created it that way. He wired us humans for a specific purpose, and yes, that purpose might just be the recipe for happiness psychologists around the world know so well: find meaning in your work and connect deeply to a community. The mysteries of how to be happy and why we are here solved!
What makes it complicated? Sin. Brokenness. So we need God to overcome the complications. Need Jesus to rediscover meaning. Rediscover how to connect to God and thus then be able to connect to the fellow man. The Gospel in a happiness oriented nutshell. Here's another way to put it:
Find God. Find meaning. Find connection to humanity. Find Happiness. The end.
(yeah, yeah, yeah there are bumps in that formula. hard times. sad times. painful times. but that's part of the process of finding meaning and finding connection. What stage of discovery are you at right now?)
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