Smile

Well I was walking back after working on my project the other day, remembering something funny that had happened that day (My supervisor whom I had considered to be a serious person, talking about - saving the world from the bad guys in Gears of War...as though it was the most important thing he had to do all weekend..LOL). Well anyways having this thought in my mind I was already having a hard time not laughing out...and it seemed impossible to refrain from having a massive smile on my face. As I was walking, I saw a lady walking towards me. I was starting to feel a little embarassed not being able to contain my smile, I was certain the lady would think I had gone nuts. But as she walked I got a rather unexpected reaction. She smiled back at me.

A complete stranger in my life whom I had never spoken to, and there she was all of a sudden smiling because of me. That just made me realise what a wonderful thing a smile is, and just how contagious it could get. I would like to believe that the lady carried on walking with a smile on her face, and hopefully made some other stranger smile. I was actually glad that I wasn't able to contain my smile.

And to be perfectly honest, the worlds troubles did seem a lot lighter while I was smiling. Thinking about the kind of reciprocating effect that one smile can have, it is that one smile that could make the whole world a much happier place. If only people would try and stop worrying for a second and see the little positive things in life everyone would be walking around smiling. When smiling people tend to be in a good mood. They would therefore be more inclined to help other people, and much less inclined to fight and argue. Half of the world's problems would automatically be solved.

So go on....SMILE...and make someone else smile as well!!

Balance

This happens to be one of my favorite pictures. Not only because it has got a dragon there (yes this does look cool), but it also has the Yin Yang at the heart of the picture. Now I probably don't know the exact meaning of the Yin Yang (could always looks wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang), but to me this sign represnts the balance of everything in life. I quite agree with it, for example with good comes bad. You cannot appreciate one without the other. If there was only happiness in this world without any sadness we would never really appreciate the happiness.

I feel it even applies in physics (yes I am a geek, and I do like physics but more on that some other time), the Third Law of Physics pretty much says "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." There are also tons of things in phycis that seem to balance out, such natural frequencies, pendulums and much more which behave in a sinusoidal manner. When some thing is sinusoidal it oscillates about a certain point, but it always balances out to the mean point.

So balance exists in so many natural things, but could it be that we are all striving to achieve balance in our lives? We tend to be civilised and try to live by a certain set of rules, yet there is always a part in us (should I say animal instinct) that wants to be free and spontaneous. I believe we havent quite found the perfect balance as yet, and in finding this balance lies the key to happiness!