DailyHappyLiving.com

gopimenon July 31st, 2009

Hi There,

Some readers of my blog have said that for a blog on `happy living’ my posts are too serious and heavy!  So today I intend to ‘lighten up’ and talk to you about a couple of ‘Scientific Research’ Experiments that seem comical to me!

1. Is ‘swinging your arms when you walk’ an efficient action? Or is it just a throwback to our evolutionary ancestry – when we used to go about on all fours? Doesn’t swinging the arms involve muscle movement and mean more energy usage?

I think I could have answered that question without any scientific study (just by using simple instinct and common sense), as ‘Yes it is more efficient because it is natural!

However Biomedical Researchers have conducted a scientific study on the above ‘all important’ question at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Method:

A mechanical model was constructed to study the dynamics of arm-swinging.   Then 10 volunteers were asked to walk with a normal swing, a reverse swing, arms folded, and held stationary at their sides. The energy usage for each style of walking was calculated from the amount of O2 consumption and CO2 production while the volunteers breathed in and out.

Study Results:

• Arm swinging while walking has low energy costs because it requires little rotational twist from the shoulder muscles compared with holding the arms still, which used up 12% more energy!
• The pendulum like swinging of the arms helped to dampen the bobbing up and down motion of walking which caused a loss of energy in the lower leg muscles! If the arms were held still, this bobbing movement (called vertical ground reaction) caused an increase in energy expenditure of 63%!
• Using a ‘reverse swing’ or an opposite to normal swing (that is right arm in sync with the right leg) caused the energy expenditure to go up 25%.

Conclusion:

Arm swinging when walking is more efficient than holding the arms still or arm swinging in reverse!

The second experiment I am going to describe should take the Guinness Record for being the most ‘frivolous and funny’ experiment ever undertaken in the name of science!  I read about it years ago so I can’t remember the University involved, but its very frivolity makes the experiment hard to forget!

2. Does the size of the female breasts increase in the mornings as opposed to at night?

I would be tempted to ask “Who cares?”  Anyway some scientific researchers thought it was important enough to conduct a rigorous study!

Method:

They devised an ingenious plan to measure the volume of the breasts.  A basin filled to the brim with water was placed in a larger glass container at about waist height. The female volunteer had to bend forward carefully and immerse her breasts in the basin of water.  The amount of water displaced overflows into the larger container. This water was then measured to give the volume of the breasts.

So the volunteers had to do this at night before going to sleep and in the morning immediately on waking up, while the researchers measured the volume of displaced water each time.  After several days the average volume in the morning as opposed to that at night could be accurately figured out!

Results:

I have no idea because the question was never important enough for me to remember the answer!

Conclusion:

I know that some sectors of the population (such as Playboy magazine and Voyeurs Anonymous etc.) may totally disagree with my conclusion!   However,  to me it constitutes a colossal waste of funds and time and intelligence to conduct inane experiments like these!

Seriously though, sometimes I feel that I too am guilty of treading the same ‘scientific research’ path in this blog on Daily Happy Living!   Because most of the ideas I share in this blog is ‘common sense’ and does not need rigorous study.

Unfortunately however, common sense has become so uncommon nowadays because we have given up our right to think for ourselves!   Thus this blog may still serve a purpose and not be considered as frivolous as the above scientific experiments.

So I give myself permission to continue boring (or inspiring) you my readers for some time to come! Do keep a lookout for my next post.

Expect Happiness!

• anger , happiness , happy living , pursuit of happiness , scientific research
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gopimenon July 29th, 2009

This has been a question that bothered me for years:  “Everyone seems to be praying for happiness, so why do so few find happiness?”

The answer is twofold:

1. The way we have been taught to pray, indeed the basic concept of prayer, is all wrong!
2. Happiness is not out there to be found!

The second answer has been well covered in my earlier post ‘The Pursuit of Happiness – Does It Make Sense?‘ so we will focus on the first (about Prayer) in this post.

What do I mean when I say that the basic concept of prayer is all wrong?  Just think about it!  What do we do when we pray? Here are some definitions from the web:

• the act of communicating with a deity (especially as a petition or in adoration or contrition or thanksgiving);
• reverent petition to a deity
• entreaty: earnest or urgent request;
• a fixed text used in praying

Except for when we are in `thanksgiving’ or `gratitude’ mode, most of the time we are asking (pleading, entreating, petitioning) for something from a Higher Source.  In this context, I find that a simpler word for this form of prayer is ‘begging’!  It is said ‘Beggars can’t be choosers!’ and I have to agree.  So how can we get what we want if we are always begging?

Personally we don’t really like to see beggars, do we?  We only feel sorry and throw them some loose change!  Even parents would not like to have their children beg them for what they want!  Why should we expect God to treat us any different?

When it comes to prayer, if we are not begging, we are ‘extorting’ or ‘bargaining’ with God.  We pray as follows:

• “Please give me that job/promotion/wealth/health etc. and I will light a candle for you in church; or break a coconut for you in a temple;  or sacrifice a goat for you;
• “If you give me what I want, I will pierce my body with hooks and needles, walk barefoot for miles, etc.”
• “If you don’t give me what I have prayed for, I will stop going to church/temple, etc”

Doesn’t it sound silly when put in such a way?  But that is exactly what we are continuing to do, day in day out!  We are bargaining with and giving ultimatums to the Supreme Power and then we expect our prayers to be answered!

Ridiculous!  I just can’t imagine God doing a ‘happy dance’ and saying: “Wow! This guy is going to light candles for Me and the other guy is going to break a thousand coconuts for Me!  The other guy is even willing to hurt/injure cause pain to his body (the body which I created for him to achieve great things in this world) for My sake.  How wonderful?  I have to give him/her what they want!

How silly is that way of thinking?   But this is what we have been taught – by our parents, by our priests, by our teachers, by our peers – and we just accept it as absolute truth and continue to practice and observe all the rituals as enjoined by them!

Even when we don’t get any results, we continue to ‘pray’ in the same manner.  Instead of rethinking our concept of prayer or our method of prayer, we continue to carry out the same actions and expect different outcomes (which happens to be a definition of insanity!)

What is a better alternative to begging?

Let me ask you this:  “If you wanted money from a bank, which gives you a better chance of getting the money – begging for a loan or submitting a business proposal?”

Of course you would have a better chance of getting your money if you submit a good business proposal!

Similarly when asking for things from the Source (i.e. praying), instead of just begging or giving ultimatums you must do the following:

1. Visualize your Desire:  Have a Clear Mental Picture of what you really want and Focus on it constantly!
2. Create the Appropriate Feelings: How would you feel if your desire were already manifested? Create those feelings of  Happiness & Gratitude as though your desire has already Manifested and send out those Happy Vibrations to the Universe.
3. Release your Desire to the Universe: Let the Universe take care of the Details of HOW your desire is going to be manifested!
4. ACT upon your Intuition: When you do the above 3 Steps, you will get inspired ideas on the steps to take so that you can achieve your desire.  Act immediately on such intuitive ideas.  Don’t wait or second guess them.  (Initially you may not be able to distinguish between true intuition and ‘wishful thinking’ because you have not made a habit of listening to your ‘inner voice’.  So you may make some mistakes, but act anyway and soon you will hear your inner voice clearly.  Then you will experience synchronicity – happy coincidences that lead you to your goal faster and easier!)
   

The above 4 Steps  are what I would call the New form of Prayer!

Remember, God is FOR us and NOT against us!  We don’t need to appease an angry or vengeful or judgmental God with offerings or prostrations!    He created this Universe for us to experience life to the fullest and live in joy and peace! – Gopi Menon

When you are clear about your Desire; when your Thoughts, Expectations, Beliefs & Emotions are aligned with Faith; and when you Act confidently on your intuition, then your Prayers are Answered!  This is how you literally transform your Dreams to Physical Reality!

• gratitude , happiness , happy living , unhappiness
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gopimenon July 14th, 2009

Hi There,

This is continued from the last post entitled ‘Singer Not the Song’.   Just recently I saw another example of people accepting things on hearsay and not questioning it rationally!

Two days ago I came across an aricle by a well known Feng Shui expert writing about the dangers of moving around during a Solar Eclipse.   One point the writer mentioned was that:  Because the sun is the source of all energy for the planet, during the six minutes or so of the eclipse (the sun’s rays being ‘blocked’ by the moon) we can expect a lot of negative ‘energy’!

My question is this:  “How about when the sun’s rays are blocked for about 10 hours every night?  Doesn’t the negative energies hold much greater sway during the 10 hours than during the 6 minutes?”

As far as I know, this ‘solar eclipse is not good for us’ idea dates back from prehistoric times when people had no answer for natural phenomena and gave stupid explanations such as:  “The dragon in the sky is swallowing the sun!”;  “Zeus must be angry with the sun-god Helius” (or is it Appollo?); “The monkey god Hanuman is carrying the sun under his armpit to prevent the sun from rising so that he can deliver the herbs to save Laxman from his mortal wounds”  and dozens of other equally silly stories.

If I’m not mistaken I think it was in the book ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ that the adventurer managed to convince the angry savages that he had the power to hide the sun – because very conveniently a solar eclipse came along to save his skin!

Now we are in the 21st Century and we are no more savages (I hope), but we still accept so many statements made by the so-called leaders or gurus without question and with absolute loyalty!  We really believe in the ‘Singer not the song!’   If a person is famous or revered for any reason whatsoever, we accept 100% anything and everything he/she says and follow it with diligence and persistence – even though the statements are very suspect and are nothing more than superstitions.  This I believe is a major reason for our collective unhappiness on earth!

In the case of the Feng Shui article, I am quite sure that many `Feng Shui’ fans would have taken precautions as suggested by the expert, without questioning the wisdom of what they were asked to do!   This is another example of people listening blindly to advice without first questioning its validity.

We keep following the rituals and observances and penances for years without any positive result that comes directly from those practices – yet we continue to do so out of fear that we may suffer more if we did not do so!  How then can one be happy?

I have described the common sense approach to happy living  in some detail in my earlier posts:  ‘The One Major Cause of Our Unhappiness’,  ‘The Pursuit of Happiness’, ‘The World According to Gopi’,  ‘God Wants Us to Be Happy’… etc.  Here is a little excerpt from one of those posts:

Similarly what is important in Life is `HOW to Live Life’.    All we need are a few simple rules to live a great, wonderful life.

After years and years of study, frustration, confusion and overcoming superstitions, I have finally formulated my own system of beliefs which I find makes it easy for me to live happily every day.    This belief system of mine covers the following major items:

• My beliefs about the Creator
• My beliefs about the World & Reality
• My beliefs about the Mind and how it works
• My beliefs about Co-creation
• My beliefs about Happiness

If you dear reader would begin to question your own beliefs about the items in the list above and come up with your own workable beliefs, then you are on the way to happy living!

If you learn to question any aphorism or proverb or ritual or observances (no matter what ‘authority’ created them) before accepting them and practicing them, then too you would be well on the path to happy living.

Remember it is the song that is important – not the singer!  The subject of the discourse is what we should debate upon – not how well the speaker delivered the speech, or how well he is dressed or his charisma!

But most of the time I find people doing the opposite at seminars or spiritual talks – they are commenting on ‘how great the speech was, how famous the speaker is, and so on.

If you ask them “What was the substance of the talk?”  They would reply if they were honest: “I don’t know.  But it was a great speech!  He is a great speaker!  His English or Tamil or other language is excellent!”

I feel tempted to retort: “Hey, we are here to learn something aren’t we – we are not newspaper critics looking for material for our next column!”

I would like to conclude this post with my favorite quotation which I shared in my earlier post:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it (even if I have said it) unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense” – The Buddha

This will be your passport to happy living on a daily basis.

• happiness , happy living , pursuit of happiness , unhappiness
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gopimenon July 9th, 2009

Hi There,

Today I am going to discuss a phrase most of us are familiar with but are not entirely clear about its meaning, namely “The Singer not the Song”!   What exactly does the phrase mean?   I checked online and I could not find any definition, nor could I find the origin of the phrase.

I first heard the phrase during my schooldays so many decades ago, and I always thought it meant:

• What you ARE is more important than what you SAY!
• You are judged by your actions, not your words!
• You must ‘walk the talk’, and so on.

But I am surprised to see that in everyday life people seem to think that it means just the opposite, such as:

• The ‘singer’ is more important than his ‘song’!
• If you are important enough, whatever you say is right!
• “Handsome is that handsome does”, and so on.

In fact I find that this seems to hold true in politics, in business and in religion!

• In politics, if you are a dictator, then whatever you say must be accepted as true and right without question!
• So too if you are a business tycoon!  Your underlings are not to question you!
• And of course all the more if you are a religious leader!  What you say is God’s word and it is blasphemy to question!

What has all this got to do with Happy Living?   Everything!  Most of us are struggling with misery and unhappiness because we are still blindly following age-old customs, rituals and practices – without considering whether they are correct or relevant in these times!

Our lack of discernment and blind acceptance of everything any famous personality says or does,  leaves us open to much unhappiness! We cannot just accept everything anyone says, without thinking about it, without questioning its validity.  If we do so we are just too lazy to use our God given power to discern between what is right and wrong, what is fact and fiction, what is belief and superstition.

This is why I say the phrase should be changed to “The Song NOT the Singer.”   We should listen to what is being said or preached and be moved by its rationale, reason and truth – not by who said it!   This is why one of my favorite quotations of all times (and one which helps me in my happy living practice) is:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it (even if I have said it) unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense” – The Buddha

Even the revered Buddha, being wise, understood that not everything he said should be taken as absolute truth – each one of us is responsible in ascertaining whether it is indeed acceptable to us!  But many of us give up that right to be discerning and so we can be easily manipulated!  And being manipulated is definitely not the way to happy living!

Before I start with some real life examples, let me tell you a ‘Sufi’ story to lighten the mood:

The Man who Kept Tigers Away!

A Sufi Master was walking into a village when he saw a man walking up and down the main street sprinkling yellow rice onto the road.

The Master asked the man: “What are you doing?”

The man proudly replied:  ” By sprinkling yellow rice I am keeping away the tigers from the village!”

The Master then observed: “But there are no tigers here!”

To which the man replied with obvious glee: “There you are.  I told you I was keeping the tigers away!”

We may laugh at the man in the story as being silly, but let us think about our own actions when we carry out some age-old rituals in the hope of getting some results!  Are we also not guilty at times of trying to keep away tigers by sprinkling yellow rice? Continue Reading »

• happy living , unhappiness
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