Fun, or Funny or Bunny

Argh.. it's boring! In my life, I have encountered this kind of moment ALL THE TIME - I even once told a recruitment agent that my top motivation at work is to be inspired, to have fun because I hate boredom. But what is @fun or #fun?

Fun is indeed an idea to be put into both personal and societal contexts. It could mean energising, inspiring, fulfilling, full of colours - and certainly not funny, or argh bunny. To me, doing my make-up and choosing which lipstick for the day is one of my fav things to do; but to a boy, I am not sure how much visual differences they could observe but they could usually observe the emotional value the make-up gave me. To some people, playing their fav kind of sports, analysing tactics, practising to be the best in the world is quite fun and charming. To some people, engaging in specific political conversations, discussing with one another or initiating certain activities so they can make the world a better place is fun because they value places and ideas central to their hearts and I like this idea too - I hate it when people make the world/ company a worse place. This is about our sense of places, our belonging and our self-identity from how we perceive what's good, rooted from our conscious and subconscious perceptions.

I recognise that, the idea of our life is fun or full of colours, is really important to our well-being. Hong Kong, my home town, is a performance-driven city. We grew up with a lot of homework, but if homework and exams were my only goals, I wouldn't have performed so well. It was the challenges and differences that have energised me. Challenges for time management, communications, connections, even nutrition, physical capacity, capability to build up financial success and resources are the skills to perform well. Performance makes me feel fulfilled and meaningful. Differences I observed in populations, cultures, books, arts, music have been the pathways for wisdom as they are my sources of intellectual stimulation that keeps me running. I feel so fulfilled that I am always ready to make a change to grasp the next opportunity in life - I don't mind to lose in order to gain because no matter how interesting one thing is, it could become boring one day and signal it's time to step up.

Having relocated to the UK a few years back, I have saved some time from commute and communications to self nourishment when the concept of neuro-aesthetics or neuroart has materialised. Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross are scholars in this field. In their book Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, they have listed various individual and organisational examples about how our aesthetic sensory experiences re-awake our inner self, connect our spiritual desires and body-mind which always resonate with our emotions. Susan and Ivy gave a deeper review into sensory experiences linked with life events and needs, and I am trying to provide a universal and empirical definition here myself. To define it simply, I think we could observe how much we like our immediate environment simply through (i) sound - music/ natural sound/ TV sound and other noises, (ii) sight - what we see, read, watch everyday (e.g. a baby is a good visual, metro is not - I prefer to close my eyes), (iii) smell - scents, perfume, toiletries, the sea, (iv) touch - electronics, flowers, texture of clothes, hair, pets, (v) taste - sensory value, freshness, nutrition of food we consume everyday. Recognising and appreciating these senses give us emotional value - not just the chemicals our brain need, but the sense of meaning of our one life in the days we have. From my experience, they also affect our prettiness. A lot of them were given to us since we were born but since everyone has their own standards of aesthetics or comfort level based on life experiences and learning, it is when we finally build our own house then we could start consciously making decisions for our everyday senses. They also develop over time, from randomness to complexity and selection of quality. I hope the complexity naturally provides higher levels of serenity and security, rather than the opposite.

When it comes to organisational level, a unified purpose can always help us to understand the meaning of being in that group. The organisation could be a company, a football club, a church, a school, a union, an activist group or even your go-to cafe. It could look like a selection but at the same time, connect us with fairly random people whom could have an entirely different background and therefore ideologies than ourselves. It is, therefore, advisable to confine the scope of interactions or be specifically clear on what connected us with the randomness in the first place and enjoy the fun element while being conscious about our own individual needs and being.

Alright, I think it is more than enough. I kind of miss my home in London - the scent, paintings, comfort, home and the secure street, but it could certainly be better with the noisy neighbours. I like Wimbledon, it's pretty. I will tell you more about prettiness in the next post.

With love,

Venus

Further reference:

(i) Susan Huganir Magsamen: executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, part of the Brain Science Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (ii) Ivy Ross: American business executive, designer, and Chief Design Officer for Consumer Devices at Google

(iii) Neuro Arts, LLC (2023) You brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. The opinion expressed in this book are those of Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, not those of Johns Hopkins University or Google. https://www.yourbrainonart.com/