It was more than an hour Satya had been sitting in front of the computer to work on her new assignment of writing a happy story. Not even a word could be typed nor a joke could come across her mind to start. She switched off her phone, cleared her desk and got her cup of tea to get her going. Then she saw the sun set. How beautiful it was to watch the sun go down – from bright white to orange to pale yellow to nothing, all in few minutes. It brought a smile to her face.
However, this did not make up to the happy story for it was short and just a sunset. She shrugged and continued to look at her screen. The MS Word’s new page seemed so calm and quiet, yet it was not going to write her happy story all by itself. Her thoughts continued to find happiness in little things, yet never could she feel it in full. Be it the rose flower in her home garden or a conversation with a friend, nothing seemed to be worthy of her happy story.
With a sigh, not knowing what to write, she quit and tried to strike a chat with Sarang who was busy working and analysing. Satya’s dull face spoke more than she could have told him of her worry. Knowing the trouble that she had been having in writing a happy story, he said, “I’m sure it’s difficult to write a happy story because you are not a mother yet.” Now, this troubled her more than writing the story. It was not about lack of children but children being the measure of happiness that troubled her. True – kids brought joy to life, but they alone didn’t make up to the joy known as happiness for life.
Sometimes, some aspects of life are destined more than designed. More than being easy and difficult, good and not so good, it was all about choices that we made that built the joy. As well, isn’t it said “Happiness is a state of mind”? It did not make sense for Satya to talk to Sarang anymore, firstly because his thoughts on the topic were not the same and secondly, he had dug his face into the reports and continued analysing his excel spreadsheet. Some lives ran on macros.
Now, there was no story, there was no happiness and the weekend passed by. More than writing, Satya started to look for happiness. She was in search of it from dawn to dusk, debating her own thoughts about the whole concept of being happy. Was it in the sunrise or in the sunset? Was it in the water that quenched her thirst after her walk or was it in the coffee during her work? Was it in the conversations with her friends or in the meetings at work? Was it in the pay cheque or in the shopping receipt? Which was better and was it constant or fleeting? She forgot to smile the entire time.
While she was still searching, there came a message from a distant friend, with a note that mentioned briefly about her happiness after reading the short story, Love for Peace, written sometime back. Pleasantly surprised with the message, she smiled. This unconscious smile released endorphins and serotonin that changed her thought process, calmed her and relaxed her. Furthermore, the search for happiness came to an end, not because she found happiness, but because she had found the source of happiness – a simple smile.
Many ideas, many thoughts and many choices, some debatable and some not, but happiness was personal.
Science says, Dopamine(D), Oxytocin(O), Serotonin(S) and Endorphins(E) are happy hormones (DOES) in the human body that promote pleasure, happiness and love and are possible to attain with physical, mental, emotional and intellectual stimulation. Now, if this is too much science, just remember smile DOES wonders. Just then, it occurred to Satya that children brought a lot of emotions with them unintentionally, and to keep them calm and relaxed, all the happy hormones had to be put to use in them to bring happiness.
It was not required to speak to Sarang about it because his Excel spreadsheets were stimulating him enough and while she waited for an unintentional DOSE of happy hormones in the family, she began to write her happy story, “Just Smile.”
