Happiness

I’ve been thinking lately about Happiness and what exactly that means. During a fairly recent Relief Society lesson, the teacher asked us to think about the following question: What percentage of the time do we feel happy? The rest of the time we might feel frustrated, angry, depressed, etc. but how often do we truly feel happy? After allowing us to think about that for a moment, she drew a pie graph of her own personal divisions of emotion, as she had previously calculated, and her happiness was down around 10 or 15%. I was shocked! Here’s a lady who has no outwardly obvious reason to NOT be happy: a great family, good health, even a sunny disposition. There was one young mother in the crowd who responded with great relief that she, too, rarely feels happy and has wondered why. An older lady responded that she finds great happiness and peace while working in the temple, and the younger lady concluded that she too would hopefully feel happier once she’s older. I, of course, did not speak up at the time but I’ve thought about it a lot since then.

I think it is possible to make up our minds to be happy, regardless of our circumstances. Neither of these “unhappy women” in class that day seemed to have anything to be unhappy about, but outward appearances don’t matter. For some people it’s easy to keep a smile on their face and hide from the world their true emotions. Some people have a natural tendency towards positivity and optimism; some have the opposite tendency. I don’t think happiness comes automatically for anyone (except maybe young children), but I do believe that it is available to anyone.