Life balance in drawing

Let’s imagine life as walking on a rope.

At the beginning, this rope is perfectly balanced between happiness and sadness.

Each of us carries a backpack, and life constantly adds things to it, making the walk increasingly difficult. The deeper we sink into sadness, the harder the path becomes, increasing the slope of our journey.

At some point, the rope can break—that’s the end. This means we cannot descend into misery indefinitely; we all have a limit. However, this limit is different for each of us.

Now, imagine we are like a little ball rolling on this rope. Let’s explore the different ways we can experience joy.

The first way is through a simple moment of joy. It could be watching the delighted face of a child tasting ice cream for the first time or receiving a thoughtful gift on your birthday. In these moments, the pleasure temporarily eases the weight you’re carrying. The “jump” you experience is small, and when you land back on the rope, you simply continue your journey as before.

Now, there are also more powerful sources of pleasure or joy. These often involve adrenaline, dopamine, or various substances you can inject or consume. The principle is the same as before, but in this case, the “jump” is much higher. While the effect lasts, the weight of life feels nonexistent—or perhaps like walking on the moon.

However, the higher you jump, the harder you crash back into reality, often leading to a longer depressive period. Additionally, the higher the jump, the greater the risks. Adrenaline can lead to accidents, and substances can result in dependency or addiction.

If this happens, you may find yourself sinking even deeper into the darker side of life.

Another source of happiness comes from effort. Again, the principles are similar. This time, you intentionally push yourself, enduring the pain of effort to move a little further toward the enjoyable side of life. However, this is an investment. All those efforts are eventually transformed into energy once they’re accomplished.

In this case, your “jump” will be quite high, and the best part is the “rearview mirror” effect—you’ll continue to feel the pleasure of your achievement long after it’s done. As a result, the landing will be soft, and you won’t experience any “comedown.”

Of course, everything has its limits, and the results of your efforts are not always proportional to the effort itself. In such cases, the rope can break, leading to what we call a “burnout.” Alternatively, if you’re “strong enough” to avoid breaking, you might not experience a burnout, but you’ll remain stuck at the bottom, unable to climb back up.

At this stage, everyone needs help to recover.

Let’s explore another category of pleasures, those that can be measured by the amount of hormones your body delivers to your brain.

The first type of pleasure typically occurs when you engage in sports. In this scenario, two key hormones are involved:

• Endorphins: Released when muscles are activated beyond a certain threshold for a sustained period.

• Dopamine: Released when you enjoy achievements or good results in a competition.

The advantage of sports, even though it can also lead to a form of dependency, is that the release of endorphins tapers off gradually with continued effort, while dopamine benefits from the “rearview mirror” effect, prolonging the feeling of satisfaction from your accomplishments.

As a result, the overall “comedown” effect is relatively mild.

The other hormones involved are:

• Oxytocin: Released when you receive love.

• Serotonin: Released when you feel respected.

In these cases, we cannot really talk about a “jump,” at least not a very significant one. However, for a relatively long period of time, these hormones help to lighten the weight of life, providing a sense of relief and balance.

In my view, life is complex and multifaceted, so you should embrace all kinds of ways to enjoy it. The key is to remain conscious of what you are doing and the choices you make.