Sense

Gretchen Rubin is a byword for happiness. One afternoon, this author of The Happiness Project discovered her eyes turning gummy and pink. That's the moment she could see what was missing. She sat in front of bulky eye-examination equipment. Never before had she experienced the world with sharper intensity. 

She walked home and learned to connect with her "big five" senses. Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching. These five senses link us to our past, tie us to the present, and help us create memories for the future. 

Which means five senses are key to our life.

Also, I realised that for many people, including me, nostalgia of recalling tastes or images make us feel closer to our own past, and help us feel happier and less lonely. Not long after reading Life in Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin, I had a reunion with my medical school classmates. The simple pleasures of reunion remind us that the days are long, but the years are long – and our years are getting shorter. We might not notice the sights or sounds of today, because they're the kind we'd seen a thousand times and never really noticed. But wait, one day, now will be a long time ago. As poet Robert Southey observed, "Live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life." I couldn't agree more when Gretchen Rubin says that her freshman year of high school seemed to last forever, but last year passed in a flash.

I felt the same way.