It is thought that happiness comes from three things, those being genetics, circumstances, and values, but I think of it as more of a personal choice where we can all decide if we want to be happy or not in life.  Different things will make different people happy, whether that involves having money, or spending time with their loved ones, first we have to figure out how pleasure works.  Dopamine is most notably involved in helping us feel pleasure as part of the brain’s reward system.  Having sex, going shopping, or smelling cookies that are baking in the oven can all trigger a dopamine release, or a dopamine rush.  This feel-good neurotransmitter is also involved in reinforcement.  Neurons in the region at the base of the brain produce dopamine communicating messages between nerve cells in your brain and your brain and the rest of your body.

American ideals include life…

Written in response https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/03/23/reenas-xploration-challenge-273/

She was chasing happiness, like a kite, flying high in the sky. The wind blew it in every direction, through the clouds, and falling back to earth. Alone, happiness was short lived. The kite never seemed to gain the height it needed to. Her legs were never quite fast enough to keep up.

With children, grandchildren, her other (sometimes better) half, the kite travelled further, higher, reaching the stars almost. It was through their laughter, she managed to stay sane. When happiness got stuck in a tree, it was her daughter who brought it back down again. When twisting around in circles, it was her husband, taking it by the string, to stop it. As the string got tangled, working together with her granddaughter fixed it again.

Happiness, a kite with ribbon, and string, cost barely pennies, yet every year, just like the crabbing net, brought…

Inspired by Reena’s Exploration Challenge #273 & Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Willy Nilly

trapped in our own space
listlessly tossed about in uncharted territory
letting depression and anxiety set in deeper

watching what happiness we had drained
if only something forced us to interact willy-nilly
what with our sanity at stake

but would we listen?

Reena’s Xploration Challenge #272

You can choose to do any of the following.

• Choose at least two words from the above in your piece.
• Guess the theme and use it.
• Use synonyms of two words in case these words do not appeal to you.

Or use the theme and/or words in any other manner you like.

Entertainment industry
In its haste to revive
The loss and popularity
During Covid time 
Forgets that
The audience has come out of the trance
It was catering
In the name of
Entertainment
Entertainment, and
Entertainment only
Overlooking the fact
That
People during
Lockdown time
came out of the hypnosis
It Imposed with
The culture of
God knows
Which world
Now on Somewhat on the same wavelength 

( at least some awakened souls)
The public  refuses to be
Entertained with 
The unsubstantial
Provocative
Compositions 

Calm seas
ńeath brewing storms
where morals turn agile
and perspicacious drifters long
for Self

Pity
enshrouds the spy
the unwitty witness
Innocence pays the maiden price
World’s Way

Of hope
on same wavelengths
fickle, is life’s grapevine
upon the volatile current
Of truth

Our fear
Precient ally
reveals and then withholds
bitter endings, brave beginnings
The Call

The You
you always tame
dewy-eyed explorer
wandering through life’s hypnosis
The spark

Tall Tales Corner

It is said that ‘art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.’
Or so their picture-perfect family hoped, as they mounted a piece of spring in their livingroom. It was odd that on sunny days, those trees seemed to bleed and a face lurked in the background windows.
The patch of sunlight surrounded by shades induced a claustrophobic feeling…

I ponder over the inconsistencies of what is said and what is done,

wavelengths diverge,

collected through stroboscopic beams.

Hypnotised, I wander as if in a trance,

with none to call or connect,

in middle of a desert, muddled, without an oasis.

There is but a lot to learn and move along,

a single being evolving as collective entity,

what if it isn’t an entrainment effect?

66 words

Acknowledgements :- Thank you Reena Saxena for hosting RxC 272. The prompt is a word cloud of five words, “Entrainment, Stroboscopic, Wavelength, Hypnosis, Trance” and we were asked to choose any two to be used in our piece. Thank you Carrie for hosting Sunday Muse 251, where we are given numerous photo to choose as our inspiration. Thank you all for stopping by and reading.

Written in response to https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/03/20/reenas-xploration-challenge-272-ma-only-trigger-warning-explicit-content-deadly-wavelengths/. This is my opening to my novel (not quite polished) In The Dark. The prologue is set twenty years before the main story, when my main character is thirteen.

I can slip in and out of Joe’s bedroom, what big bro don’t know.

Pushing the white door, lightly, I whisper his name; just in case. Inside, I shut the door with a soft thud.

His little green Christmas tree sits in the corner, covered in baubles. It’s so bloody neat in here. In little piles, his schoolbooks, probably in alphabetical order, are on his table.

Even his bed is made.

It’s like nobody lives here man.

Mum’s always having a go. Sarah, why can’t you be more like your brother? Your room is a pigsty. If you don’t bring those clothes down I’ll take out the wire from your X-box. Nag, nag, nag, every…

If you want to take part in the writing prompt, you can click on the link below to access it. Reena’s Xploration Challenge #272

You can choose to do any of the following.

• Choose at least two words from the above in your piece.

• Guess the theme and use it.

• Use synonyms of two words in case these words do not appeal to you.

Or use the theme and/or words in any other manner you like.

---

Entranced in the wavelength’s sway,

Flashing lights lead us astray,

Lost in the trance, worries at bay,

Pure joy takes over, all night we’ll play.