“Anatomy of Happiness”

                            - Ratan Agarwal, Board Member & Vice-President

If you are like me, media reporting on country ranking for ‘Happiness Index’ have always piqued my attention with that deep yearning to learn about the secret sauce to ‘Happiness’. Alas, that curiosity has mostly failed to find much beyond the same news that Scandinavian countries are right up at the top. Is there a key to crack the code? 

Well, hopefully next few minutes of your time may untangle that mystery in a language of science that our techno-mind is more comfortable with. 

Path to any knowledge has to start with questions first, especially when we are talking about anatomy. Hold your ready-to-google fingers, because all my questions come with answers.

So, how many total cells are in your body? 37 Trillion! This is in contrast to total world population of 7.8 billion. 

How many miles of vessels do we have in our body? 100 thousand miles! That is equivalent to going around the world four times.  

Hopefully you are getting the picture of the anatomical path to happiness – it goes through all these cells and vessels. So, if you want happiness, you better be prepared for enough work to keep all those trillions and miles to be happy first.  

Don’t despair! I told you this article is with answers. 

Easiest way to answer is by shamelessly borrowing a story from a Netflix movie (aka a docu-movie “HUMAN – The World Within”). It shows a healthy 6’ truck driver doing his job sincerely, but also adding progressively nice weight touching the scales at 240 lbs. And then one-day his heart is anatomically signaling its unhappiness with burning sensation. Guy was smart – not ignoring the message (unlike many of us overconfident folks do) and drove straight to the E.R., where they read him the dreaded scorecard of the unwanted payoff of his long hours in mostly sedentary position that his job entailed. Sounds familiar? 

How did that payoff come about? 

Our heart is an amazing piece of machinery, only that invisible Higher Power could have built. It pumps a big load of needed nutrients (through that 6 liters/minute of blood circulation) to all those hungry trillions. That pumping motion needs to happen in both directions — if it goes down through the arteries, then it also needs to come back through the veins. Going down is
taken care of by the heart muscle (hopefully yours is strong enough). However, coming back up is the harder journey and this is where heart is desperately looking for YOUR cooperation – use of muscles. If you are just sitting, muscles are not acting and thus there is no supporting motion to easily send the blood back up. And hence the poor heart is left waiting for cooperation! So that unhappy heart is left with no choice, but to make you pay with an E.R. visit.

Physical health is necessary but just the first stepping stone to happiness. Mental health is even more important piece of the puzzle. Even though Netflix movie stops at the physical level, the same story extends to your mind and intellect. Use those muscles in your mind & intellect, or lose them on the way to your waiting spot in a nursing home nearby.

But that use of mind & intellect muscles have an additional twist. Choice.

Now hopefully, you know what choice to make. A visit to E.R. or be a good kid to fall in line with your anatomy’s original intent — use your muscles. Basically, it is a very simple premise — Use it or Lose it. It is no joke – just look at how many people in this world are making the choice of ‘lose it’!!  

The truck driver mentioned earlier, like a good heart he was, makes an easy decision to switch jobs to drive a disabled people carrier van. Why? Even at 60+ years of age, he wants those walking steps, and enough use of ‘waiting’ muscles in helping disabled ladies enter the van and sit.  

So folks this is the anatomy of happiness. Our body is designed to use those trillions of cells, those thousands of miles of vessels, and those muscles. You make a choice to use or lose. 

Physical health is necessary but just the first stepping stone to happiness. Mental health is even more important piece of the puzzle. Even though Netflix movie stops at the physical level, the same story extends to your mind and intellect. Use those muscles in your mind & intellect, or lose them on the way to your waiting spot in a nursing home nearby. But that
use of mind & intellect muscles have an additional twist. Choice. Using them for right or not so right purposes. That spectrum of choices ranges from purely selfish (‘me’ and ‘mine’) to unselfish to selfless, and all combinations in between. The result – ‘Happiness’ – also has exactly the same corresponding spectrum of outcomes. Higher the ratio of selfishness more the mental agitation & unhappiness. 

Before I end, there ought to be some easy options provided to exercise those mind muscles in the right direction. An easy one is close to ‘home’ – WHEELS Global Foundation. Engaging in WHEELS’ social impact initiatives gives you both the unselfish focus and opportunity to enjoy the IIT fraternity – working with other IITians and IITs.  

Persistence of Scandinavian countries’ happiness ranking is no surprise given widespread popularity of biking & hiking (and other sports), and acceptance of shared-sacrifices (in the form of higher social-security taxes) for the overall good, i.e., higher-standards of living for everyone. Even while not living in those countries, happiness is well within everyone’s reach as long one is ready to make right choices that anatomy demands.

Feel free to contact me at ratan@wheelsglobal.org for further anatomical discussion on happiness.