One of my classes thought of a game that was funny at first…but made me reflect deeply afterwards. They were trying to think of something memorable or funny about the person and copy it.

Note: These are not their real names.

Let’s do the Benedict! rotates their head as if they’re sleepy kids in a moving van

Let’s do the Anna! pumps their chests back and forth

Let’s do the Ysa! talks gibberish as if they’re little babies

Let’s do the Carmen! stomps their feet and cries “Annaaaaa, I am friends with Ysaaaaa.”

Let’s do the Teacher Nikki! shouts innocently, “Class, you know what I hate the most. I love kids, but I’m strict with the rules.”

I was laughing at first, but when I heard that… I had to laugh even harder…just to cover my confusion! I have said that statement only once, but that’s what they remembered the most.

John Holt observed that children can easily magnify the feelings of the adults around them, and now, I agree.

Their game made me analyze my past experiences:

Whenever I walk into the room with a genuine smile on my face, they also smile and do their tasks happily. They either sing a song or crack jokes. The room is filled with lots of laughter.

There was a time when I felt really, really sick. This lowered my reserve of patience. My voice raised easily when a kid misbehaved. Because of this, my class instantly became quiet. It was so quiet that it bothered me!

I could also remember an instance when I felt so nervous because one of my bosses would come to my class for observation. The kids looked nervous as well! They were all stiff and sat straight the whole time. It might be because they felt how I felt!

Seeing this, I told myself to find ways to cultivate my happiness. I want to produce happy children, excited to learn every day. That’s my goal, but I realized that I have to start with myself, at the core of my being.

A book that helps me a lot is Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” I looked for it because it was mentioned in the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” several times.

Viktor Frankl is a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust. In his book, he wrote about the power of using our freedom to choose. During the war, Nazis killed nearly all his family while he got sent to the death camps. He said he was able to survive the camps because he chose to stay hopeful — and they could never take that choice away from him. While at the camps, he thought about the importance of purpose and finding meaning in life. There, he learned that most mental and emotional sicknesses stem from a sense of meaninglessness or emptiness.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from him:

One must have a reason to “be happy.” Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. Happiness must not be pursued, but ensued.

We have to have our Whys to keep going every day.

When I read this, I looked at my husband, and observed him.

I realized that he is a happy person because he focuses on his reasons to be happy — simple things like cats, dogs, all animals, babies, his family (which includes me).

I started to think of my reasons, and I realized that I have a lot of reasons to be happy. A lot.

I am alive.

I am healthy.

I just ate some really good udon.

I can hear birds singing.

There are cute dogs everywhere.

I have a career that makes me feel like I’m doing something significant in this world.

I am loved, so loved. I have the ability to love in return…my list could go on!

This proves that my God is always with me!

Doing this makes me feel like every cell of my body is alive!

I think we easily forget these reasons because we tend to focus a lot on the future or get trapped in the past.

We need to be self-aware, to take charge of our own thoughts and feelings. After all, we are creatures of choice. We can’t really blame anyone for what we feel. As Frankl said, we have the freedom to choose. We have the freedom to stay unharmed or unaffected if someone acts negatively.

May we all try to keep the habit of pursuing happiness. Oops, scratch that. I meant pursuing reasons to be happy.

It helps us feel that we are living the happy, productive life that we all want to live. It’s also contagious! Children, especially, will thank us for it in the future.

I hope this can provoke you to reflect more this Holy Week…Happy Easter! :)