How to Find Happiness A-Z: S

(Previously published as a guest post, but so darn awesome I had to share it again...)

What do you think of when you hear the word, “cheese”? Yummy milk products? Picture taking? General silliness?

For me, cheese = smile = happiness.

We moved to NYC when my daughter was only a year old. She had absolutely no fear of people. She’d walk up to any stranger in the subway and take their hand—while I suffered heart palpitations. Even though it put me on edge, I had to appreciate that my child faced the world with such boldness, that she saw goodness in everyone. She had such a sincere love for people that she couldn’t help but spread it.

And the miracle? People responded. Hardened New Yorkers softened when she looked at them with those big eyes and that sweet smile. They constantly commented on how adorable she was, and everywhere we went, a trail of smiles followed.

Image courtesy of Nemo via Pixabay

It is a scientific truth that smiles pass from person to person, just like yawns. They’re contagious. In one experiment I watched, a well-timed smile even prompted the recipients to stop and help someone who’d dropped some books. Can you imagine that? A smile inciting the inherent goodness in people?

According to Gary L. Wenk, a Ph.D. and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, a smile (fake or real), pulls on the thin bones in the face and causes increased blood flow through the frontal lobes of the brain. When that happens, the body releases an increase of dopamine—which is a naturally occurring “happy drug.”

Believe it or not, you are dosing yourself with happiness every time you smile—and inspiring others to do the same. Maybe that’s the real secret behind children being so much happier than adults. They smile more.

Seems like my daughter had life all figured out at the age of one. Guess I should try to be more like her, eh? Would you like to try the experiment with me? Let’s see if we can’t make the world a better place, one “cheese” at a time.

On the Wonders of Cheese...and symbolism

If you've been here for very long you certainly noticed the redundancy of my one fetish. Call it a character quirk, but if I were to be written into a book you can bet I'd been buying, munching, or mentioning cheese at least once a page.

When I think of cheese the first image to come to mind is that 5 lb golden block of cheddar Mom bought once a week. You know, the staple. It's the one food my family would have ceased to exist without. It represents life, vitality, thriving existence. But more than that, cheese=happiness. Besides the many tongue-tingling motivations to love cheese, I honestly think it's the key to solving all our problems.

Above and beyond it's cheery color, that block of cheddar encompasses lunches spent with my brothers, cheese souffles that my special needs brother died for, and bathroom raids to discover where Randy stashed the block this time. (Yes, he really did steal the cheese and hide it in the bathroom...regularly.) Every childhood memory I have of cheese is tied to family.

Families are the ultimate source of joy. And pain. But mostly joy. 

Connecting to symbolism:

Complex characters, or real people don't simply latch onto an item or notion for no reason. There are deeper motives. So what drives you? What drives your character(s)? And what outward symbols do you use to exemplify this?

Counting Rays of Sunshine

It's so easy to get stuck in the rainy day rut. Yesterday we celebrated my daughter's 6th birthday. Our plans included:

1. Going to Universal Studios
2. Swimming in our pool for the first time this year, and
3. Taking our daughter out on her NEW training-wheel-free bike.

Well, our day ended up looking like this:

Okay, maybe not quite that bad, but stepping outside for 10 seconds would have resulted in total saturation.

No Universal. No swimming. No bike riding. Yet, to our amazement our daughter had the most fabulous day. She said it's the best birthday she's ever had!

Lesson? Kids are amazing. I want to be more like mine. Especially today I'm trying to focus on the good, and amazingly, the day looks like this:

Here's to getting back up when life kicks you hard! 

What are you especially grateful for today?