What is a Happy Life?
What does living a happy life mean? Is it a relative term? Is there such a thing as the happiest perfect life?
The answer to the question posed by the title of this content is not a one size fits all reply. Not only that, but we live in a world where we cannot even agree on when life begins. Setting aside that highly politicized topic, everyone should be able to agree to the following facts:
We all need someone to take care of us until we reach a certain age, and we often need someone to take care of us at after a certain point in life. In between those two time periods, it is up to each individual to live out their life in a manner they see fitting for themselves.
The Tyber Lustig Foundation takes the position that everyone is different in a variety of ways. Even identical twins have different fingerprints. The primary common denominators are that we all need varying degrees of sleep, hydration, and nutrients to properly function. Once we get beyond these few commonalities, the plethora of differences commence. These differences range from the fact that people come in all shapes and sizes with varying amounts of pigmentation in their skin, to being judged by the size of one’s bank account or social status. The fact that no two people are EXACTLY alike, allows us to conclude this paragraph by re-referencing the topic sentence to conclude that living a “Happy Life” is different for everyone.
What does living a Happy Life mean?
Is it a relative term? Is there such a thing as the happiest perfect life? The Tyber Lustig Foundation was formed to help people, from all walks of life, navigate for themselves to cope with the inevitable change in circumstances that affect everybody’s ability to live happily. Life does not come with a user’s manual when we are born. While we conclude that our foundation does not have all the right answers, The Tyber Lustig Foundation is set up to at least raise all the right questions.
Depending on the individual and their unique set of circumstances, certain things come to us naturally, while other things need to be learned. For example, crying, laughing, burping, coughing, sneezing, urinating, defecating, perspiring, and sleeping are not acquired skills. Whereas, learning how to walk, talk, think, and to care for oneself are skills to be learned.
When and from whom do we learn these skills?
More often than not, we learn how to walk, talk and go potty from family members. Once these basic skills are mastered, an individual’s learning process is most often delegated to non-family members in the form of a structured schooling environment. Some may start in preschool before entering elementary school around age 5. From there we move on to middle school, high school, and in some cases on to college and trade schools. This is considered one’s “FORMAL” education.
What is the purpose of education, be it formal or informal? Ideally, this process is to prepare a person to best take care of themselves. While consuming enough nutrients and getting enough sleep are mandatory requirements of living, they are not free of charge. Food costs money. Securing a safe environment to sleep costs money. While we have all heard the expression, “Money does not buy happiness,” The Tyber Lustig Foundation wants to remind everyone that not having basic financial resources definitely does not ensure a life of happiness. In our society, not being able to afford a roof over your head or not knowing how you will be able to afford to put food on the table, are key components to achieving mental health. Add this to the wide variety of other issues that affect a person’s mental well-being, and it is no wonder so many people feel our current education system is outdated.
When, and how, are people supposed to learn these basic life skills?
Is it just a trial-and-error process? With the unnecessary wide array of public education courses, how many truly address the life skills needed to achieve a happy life? The Tyber Lustig Foundation wants to become a source to better educate people on the skills they need to be a functioning adult. Not only should people be able to properly communicate, comprehensively read, and be well-versed in basic math, but more attention needs to be given to self-awareness. When are we supposed to learn patience, empathy for others, self-confidence, earning a livelihood skill set, coping with adversity, etc.? These are all things that people need to start learning even at early ages.
Everyone only has one childhood. Almost always our childhoods form the foundation for adulthood. Just attending school can be awkward and intimidating. At very early ages, children need to learn it’s okay to ask for help. They need to learn how to cope with periods of sadness. They need to learn to not be bothered by bullies. Becoming well-versed in all these areas will serve them well as they grow older.
Not learning these types of things early on invariably impacts our ability to be happy adults. Few people go through life not needing help. Few people go through life without experiencing sadness. Most people have times in their life when their level of happiness is based upon what someone else says or thinks about them. No one sets out in life wanting to be homeless or addicted to drugs. Given the utter lack of attention to mental health education and adulthood preparation, it is amazing there are not even more issues.
The Tyber Lustig Foundation is tired of waiting for someone else to modernize our education system.
With whatever financial resources we are fortunate enough to muster, we hope to provide content to help people cope with whatever life throws at them.
While early preparation for living a happy life is at the cornerstone of our foundation’s efforts, continuing education throughout adulthood is also an emphasis. With the incredible amount of information and misinformation bombarding our everyday lives, so many of us are ill-prepared to sort things out for themselves. So much of what we read and hear throughout our daily lives are nothing more that cleverly disguised sales pitches. When, as a society, did we become so gullible? A common theme of The Tyber Lustig Foundation’s message is to confront supposed statements of fact with the question, “Says who?” If the reply references THE EXPERTS, the next questions should be, “What makes them an expert?” “When did they become experts?” Are they THE expert or just a relative expert compared to the common lay person?
Early and continuing self-education and awareness are critical components to living a happy life. While our foundation focuses on many issues that impact a person’s individual wellbeing, it also needs to include many other areas of society that need to be rebooted. For this reason, The Tyber Lustig Foundation is going to address and confront a wide array of areas of life that can have significant impact on a person’s wellbeing. These areas include, but are not limited to, our toxic political environment, healthcare, our outdated education system, unaccountable elected officials, the ever-increasing government intrusions into our daily lives, and even our outdated deployment of our brave men and women who thankfully signed up to protect the citizens of our country. Unfortunately, all of these areas, and more, play a key role in a person’s individual pursuit of a happy life.
Please navigate through our website and hear our thoughts on the various topics. Let’s get happy!
