happy – Momo's Musings

Happiness: Nursery Rhymes

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Moumita Dutta

Photo Credit: *Not on the High Street, the Home of Thoughtful Gifts*

Wow, what a busy start to the school year, am I right?

This isn’t one of my conventional positivity posts. Nonetheless, I think that it deserves to be in this section of my blog — some songs that had us laughing and clapping as toddlers are the same ones that we can smile back on now. However, we have some thinking to do about them as well.

First thing first. When was the last time you heard a nursery rhyme? Maybe it wasn’t too long ago, and you heard it on TV. Or you have a younger cousin, for who you dug out some child friendly songs from the back of your mind and sang to. Or maybe the last time you heard one seems like eons ago, long ago days where you yourself were still sucking your thumb and needed a lullaby every night to be put to sleep.

When I think of lullabies, I fondly remember times of the past — I used to love lullabies for bedtime. When I got a little older, I ran around playing Ring Around the Rosies and London Bridge.

But when nursery rhymes came to my mind a few days ago, I was taken away by a sharp realization… why are so many about them about passing away? It’s Raining It’s Pouring, Humpty Dumpty, Ring Around the Rosies, and London Bridge all have an underlying theme of death in they’re songs. The old man hit his head and couldn’t get up again, Humpty Dumpty’s pieces weren’t put back together again, rings around a rose shape on the body are a sign of the Black Death, and the London Bridge would’ve seen fire during the great London Fire. Unknowingly, children sing about these issues during playtime. At a young age, kids don’t know what they’re about, but as they grow up, those lyrics become a segway into difficult topics.

Now that I have that thought out of the way, there are other lullabies that actually teach us important parts of life before we even know that we’re being taught them. For example, when we were babies, it is possible that lullabies helped our memories and promoted language learning skills. Even today, some people find that singing a few facts or rhyming their notes help them memorize better. Songs also support creativity. Finally, classical music also supports memory and concentration.

Other children’s songs are also pretty poetic, if you ask me. Row, Row, Row your Boat has a line that says ‘life is but a dream’. Another one is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Really, when you think about it, some of the rhymes are as poetic as the ballads of today.

And don’t get me started on the songs of other cultures and languages. That’s a whole different post entirely!

Here’s some soft music that you can listen to to remember the power of lullabies:

This is an orchestral piece that can help you sleep and/or study.

Disney songs are always great! Listen to these tunes while trying to concentrate on work!

Finally, some classical music!

Stay tuned, and stay happy! : )

P.S. For more of my positivity posts, check out that section of my blog! These posts help me live a happier life, and I hope they can help you too!

Home, Positivity Posts, Study Corner

Happiness: Great Teachers

Posted on August 23, 2019August 23, 2019 by Moumita Dutta

When I met my kindergarten teacher for the first time, I didn’t ever want to leave the school — I still distinctly remember that fond memory.

As time passed, I met new people and became a new person. But one of the biggest factors to my development (emotionally, mentally, physically, and academically) has been my teachers. I feel like I was always super lucky — blessed, even — to have the best teachers for all my different stages of life. I was just thinking about how thankful I was to every one of them. They are a source of my happiness and improvement.

I have had many, many teachers. They were all unique in their own way. I still have connections with some of them, but with others regretfully not. I’ve lived in a few cities and had to adjust to various school environments. But I had help along the way.

One thing that I loved was that instead of just teaching us academically, all of my teachers taught my class and I proper behavior, responsibility, patience, and kindness. They were exceptional role models. My teachers loved their job very much, and through that, they infused in me a quality that I still have to this very day — my love for learning. I cannot express how important I believe it is to have a teacher invested in their job, nurturing and encouraging children to reach new heights, explore new topics, and overcome their fears.

I was able to perform two Shakespeare plays in elementary school (an unabridged version of Hamlet and and abridged version of Romeo and Juliet), thanks to two very dedicated teachers. I’m sure that it was difficult to organize us. But through that, I learned Shakespearean language, literature, and the lifestyle of the time.

In grade 8, I had a teacher that I felt was just as happy as us to go to school everyday. She constantly searched for enrichment opportunities — helping out other classes, helping the office, and letting us take the lead for fundraisers. She celebrated all of our birthdays, so we celebrated hers as well. In between our lessons, tiring (but fun) gym classes, and quiet work periods on fabulous projects, she would take pictures and videos of us. Over time, she printed out those pictures and we put them up on our classroom door. By the end of the year, it was full. And on top of that, she put together a video longer than an hour of our pictures and videos as a goodbye present.

And that was one of the years that I truly felt my love for biology — we had to work in partners and take one of each of the body systems to give a full presentation about it — anatomy, physiology, and pathology! Not to mention a full body sized diagram (it took quite a while drawing all those veins and arteries). And we also had to write a report on cells, exploring every part of them (in the end, I wrote 40 pages because I had so much fun learning about them).

Looks like I went on a tangent there. I wish I could write about all my teachers, but then you’d all be here reading about them for at least five hours! (That wasn’t even half of what I wanted to say about my grade 8 teacher.)

Anyways, I hope you all read this and wonderful memories of childhood pop into your head. Do you all have a teacher (or teachers) that hold a special place in your heart?

Stay tuned, and stay happy! : )

Home, Positivity Posts

Happiness: Prologue

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Moumita Dutta

Happiness. Something we all long for, but something that many of us feel they cannot achieve. Yet, to become truly happy is the goal of a healthy life. So I thought that it was appropriate to start off this section with my Happiness series. Here, I will be writing about positive things I see everyday and ways you can make yourself feel at peace.

I called it the prologue for a reason…each of my posts is going to be a chapter. It will help me as much as I hope it helps you! I would love to document things that put a smile on people’s faces.

Something like a child eating his ice-cream, or a girl dancing without a care in the roads. Perhaps like a dog slowly becoming friends with their owner’s other pets. Whatever the case, I want to share something like that with the world, because there’s too much negativity out there. Maybe I’ll write a short piece on it or take a picture. It could also inspire me to share a way to manifest your own joy.

Stay tuned, and stay happy! 🙂

“If you want to be happy, be.”
– Leo Tolstoy