2025/01/05 [Sun]
New Year Reflections and Finding Balance
Hi Y’all, Jorge here. Did you enjoy your New Year’s celebration? Did you get some rest? Are you feeling stuffed from all the food you ate? Have you thought about what you want to do this coming year? I think I finally came up with my resolution. I hope you have too! If you haven’t, that’s okay. No rush! Mine came to me recently while traveling with friends. I had the chance to spend time with some university friends who visited Japan for the holidays. They toured on their own for a bit and then came to visit me in Gunma for a few days. Afterward, they returned to Tokyo for events and concerts they wanted to attend at the end of the year. They’re thrilled to have their salaries in USD, making everything almost 40% cheaper. Incredible, right? We all did Hatsumode together and got our fortunes. We waited in line for about twenty minutes to get into the festival area to give our prayers, and getting our fortunes was a lot faster.
Fortune and Balance
Did you get the fortune you wanted? I got my favorite one, 末吉! You might wonder why I’m happy about it. Well, I like to think I’m relatively lucky. But it always depends on how you think about it. Life needs balance, so you can’t always be lucky. Too much of one thing isn’t good for you. Everything in moderation or a good balance is essential.
The Importance of Balance
Let me share some examples. Coffee is great. I love its flavor, smell, and caffeine. It’s an amazing drink and a great way to wake up. I drink coffee before going to the gym and before work. It gives me energy and a mental boost to work hard. Do you drink coffee? If so, when do you drink it? Do you use it to start your day or with a meal to help with digestion? There are many ways and times to enjoy coffee. But too much coffee can be bad, especially caffeinated coffee. You can start to feel nervous, have heart palpitations, get a stomach ache, etc. It’s a powerful drink, but if you drink too much, your body gets used to it, so you need more. And drinking too much can have adverse effects.
The same goes for alcohol. It’s great and delicious. There are many types, and you can mix them in different ways. You have weak, strong, and super strong alcohols that sometimes make me wonder why they were even made—like Bacardi 151, which is basically gasoline! It’s great to drink in moderation, but too much can have many side effects. You could lose your memory, do stupid things, get nauseous, throw up, and if you drink too too TOO much, you could even die. Surviving a night of heavy drinking might leave you with a horrible hangover the next day.
Luck and Happiness
I think the same can be said about luck and fortune. If you’re always lucky, you get too accustomed to it, and you won’t appreciate the truly lucky days. Did you know it’s possible to be TOO happy? Let me explain. Many chemicals work in your body to make you ‘happy’; one of them is dopamine. Dopamine is released when your brain expects a reward—like eating good food, sweets, shopping, listening to music, etc. These activities and more release dopamine. Doing too much of one thing lowers how much dopamine you get. So if you eat something sweet every day at the same time, you get your hit of dopamine. But if you eat something sweet every ten minutes, you won’t get the same dopamine release as if you waited all day. Too much dopamine can make you aggressive, hallucinate, or become delusional. Too little dopamine, and you might feel less focused, motivated, and even depressed. So your body always tries to find the perfect balance. Incredible, isn’t it? The human body. Too much or too little of anything is bad for you. Even water! Too little water can dehydrate you, causing health problems. Drink too much water too fast, and you’ll feel sick, bloated, and if you really overdo it, you could drown. Your body won’t process all the water, and it can cause your cells to burst, making you drown even on dry land. Weird, right? But what I’m trying to say is that balance is necessary. If everything in the world works on a balance, luck shouldn’t be any different, right?
Embracing Unlucky Days
Your unlucky days might not be too bad—or they might be very bad. It all depends on your perspective. I’m told I’m forward-looking and a positive thinker. I describe myself as a realist, which some interpret as pessimistic. But how you live your life shows your true outlook. If I were truly pessimistic, would I still strive to reach my goals, go to the gym, and enjoy life? Who knows. Adding labels is tricky because the world is full of nuances, not just black and white. A good balance is essential.
What do you think? Do you feel you’re always unlucky? Or do you see yourself as usually lucky? Not every day is sunny, so find a way to enjoy the rainy days to appreciate the sunny ones when they come. Rain can even fall on the sunniest of days. In Japan, this is called a “the fox’s wedding.” My family used to call these moments blessings from God. In different regions of Japan, this phenomenon has various meanings. For example, in Tokushima, it’s considered a bad omen.
The same situation can have different interpretations based on where you are. Why stick to one way of thinking when you can embrace more perspectives and find your own balance?
