
Would you believe me if I say “I found the recipe of happiness, in my son’s Ninja book?” It is true. We need a daily D.O.S.E. to be happy.
D is for Dopamine. You get dopamine from exercise, eggs, fish, avocados and bananas. Also “creating something”, listening to music and sleeping gives you the D.
O is for Oxytocin. Hugging, physical touch, petting a dog, yoga, meditation and socializing will give you a boost of O. Also eating “chocolate”; yay for me!!
S is for Serotonin. Sunlight exposure, sleeping, eating fruits, nuts, spinach will get you S.
E is for Endorphins. Laughing by watching or reading something funny, creating music or art will boost the E.
Is not that amazing that there is a recipe for happiness?
My sister also sent me a video about 5 reasons of unhappiness.
Reality not matching expectations
Comparing yourself to others
Missing the past
Giving yourself too much importance
Making life unnecessarily complex
All these remind me of the Candan Ercetin song “For Sure”. Mesmerizing voice and strong words.
For sure, if I am crying today, I will laugh tomorrow.
For sure, first I will take off, then I will return.
For sure, sometimes I will say, sometimes I will be quiet.
Thinking on happiness allowed me to notice why I enjoyed writing blogs, which is a form of "creation". (And maybe also because it does not get a revision from my bosses, to scratch them off entirely in red font, tracked changes) Similarly, my poems -that sometimes I tried making into songs- or the 'paint by numbers artwork', my crochet avocado couple, 500 piece puzzles, or my baking adventures might be serving a similar purpose. Our little brains need little amusements.🤭
How about learning? In that case, "discovery" makes me happy. I also noticed why I fell in love with coding. You could do a western blotting experiment—or a coIP, if you are lucky, you can find that two proteins are interacting upon a stimulus maybe after one month, or two months. But with the power of coding, you hit control enter and "ta da!" the figure is ready! How amazing is that!
In my little circle of friends, this week we discussed “what is true love?”. I wish I had an answer for that too. At this point in life, a nurturing relationship would involve shared goals, shared dreams, supporting each other's paths, healthy communication and sharing duties. Where did the need for 'true love' go, then? Maybe my discovery aspirations are trying to replace such a need. Later, in my life, I may figure out a different version of true love, which is maybe disregarding anything temporary and focusing on un-worldly metaphysical things. Does this feel like connecting the dots or pulling the right thread to undo a knot for you as well?
This week, we listened to US Census Bureau director Rob Santos. He gave a talk without slides, on three stories. My main takeaway was that as a Statistician, we may have a role to keep equity, balance and fairness that would impact the entire society. We should listen to our heart, and be courageous to speak up. He was a very happy person and his happiness traveled through the screen. I noticed the leadership is changing in the government these days. I can only wish for the best.
As my personal take from the Ninja book, I cooked a large spinach dish yesterday, and ate banana this morning. As I ate the spinach, which is not my favorite, I kept saying “this will make me happy”. We get Monday off this week, which I will use to finish my new book The Last of the Moon Girls. So far the discovery phases in the story are definitely making me happy 😍
Remember to take your daily DOSE, steer away from 5 reasons that bring unhappiness, see how you can contribute to the society with your role and jump on all opportunities for discovery— to be happy! 😃
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