How do we create happy and full lives whether it be for our children or ourselves?  In the last fifty years there has been unparalleled neuroscientific research especially in the area of mindfulness and daily meditation, so we ask if following the prescription will ease our journey.  Should our lives be the pursuit of the peaceful and the happy?  After all suffering does have its place.  Suffering molds and carves us.  It gives us impetus and momentum as no amount of peacefulness can.  We can spend our entire lives moving away from that which causes pain.  It is the brain that translates what our experiences mean to us.  The same set of circumstances can be lived and absorbed differently according to our biological makeup and past experience.  To what percent are we capable of shaping how we experience life?  Is our brain and biological makeup malleable and trainable?  Can we simply inflict upon it a force of choice to change suffering into contentment?