The Neutrino Effect: Using the Mundane for Emotional Gain
Do you find it hard to maintain a baseline feeling of happiness in your life, and instead feel that you’re only truly content when something “big” is going on? Does most of your happiness stem from things like closing a deal at work, relaxing on luxury vacations, or looking forward to attending your upcoming events? What if, the whole time, the key to true fulfillment has been hiding in the little things?
We often place our focus on the obviously large things in life — promotions, marriages, graduations, etc. What about the small, ordinary things that make up our day-to-day life? The things that seem so common that we hardly even notice them? Waking up to a sunny day, receiving an unexpected compliment, or coming home to your freshly made bed. When you think about it, these little things are what make our lives whole, as we would certainly notice a sense of dullness in our days without these seemingly minor interactions.
So why do we call these the “little things”? Why do we place so much attention on “big” important aspects of life, and not the ones which demand less of our attention but in fact encompass more of our lifetime?
Let’s explore why normalcy might be associated with less value. We tend to overlook the things that have become routine — making breakfast, taking a shower, commuting to work– the list goes on. It’s interesting to step back and take notice of how these things actually make up to a significant portion of our lives. Viewing them as negligible, we assign them a smaller value to match with their small magnitude, overlooking the capacity for tiny things to have massive impacts.
It can be awakening to ask ourselves, why do we often overlook the little things if they can be so important? This is due to a tendency I’ve been observing in humans over the last several years, which I’ve named:
The Neutrino Effect.
We’re all familiar with “the building blocks of life,” (atoms), however in my experience, mentioning the term “neutrino” often leaves people scratching heads.
Neutrinos are incredibly tiny subatomic particles, far smaller than atoms (learn more here, if you’re interested!). Despite their minuscule size, neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the entire universe.
How can this be true if you haven’t even heard much about them? Well, they tend to go unnoticed because they interact very weakly with matter. To elaborate, despite about 100 trillion neutrinos passing through our body every second, we aren’t taking any time to acknowledge that this is going on, because, in the greater context, it simply seems mundane.
This way of thinking, however, is representative of our tendency to associate high abundance and small magnitude with inferiority or insignificance. In contrast, we pay attention to things that are “big” or have a large impact on their own– the parties, the exams, the mean comments– and often overlook the very things that make up our everyday lives.
Continuing, the following point is actually the piece of this effect that I seek to emphasize. Despite their outstanding abundance, despite their unfathomably small size… Believe it or not,
Neutrinos are absolutely fundamental to our universe.
Did you ever realize that these tiny particles were zooming through not just you, but all of your surroundings at every single moment? Sure, whatever; why are we still talking about chemistry? Well, I want you to understand a key feature of neutrinos– if these particles called neutrinos didn’t exist, neither would we.
Read that again– it’s crucial for your understanding.
We need neutrinos to survive, whether or not we are even aware of their purpose- or even their existence for that matter.
Our cherished Sun emits these particles at a mind-blowing rate, and they play a crucial role in the nuclear reactions that keep this essential star shining. Without neutrinos, there would be no reactions. Without reactions, there would be no Sun. And well, without the Sun, well, you can imagine what would happen — say goodbye to life on Earth!
Scary to think about, right? Now, let’s liken this a smaller scale, considering again our daily lives. Just like neutrinos, small activities or moments that often seem trivial or go unnoticed because they are so abundant or appear to be lacking in magnitude. They’re so regular, so common, they’re so normal that they couldn’t possibly hold much significance.
Here’s the thing — it’s precisely their abundance and frequency that make them essential to our well-being, happiness, and overall life experience. They are what make up the foundation for all of the more substantial outcomes we do happen to notice. That wedding you attended wouldn’t have even been possible hadn’t it been for the break room smiles shared months before by the happy couple, back when they were just coworkers.
We are often privileged to enjoy so many “little” pleasures, such as having a caramel latte every morning or buying a new cell phone, that we can overlook our fortune. These events, ironically, are so necessary, so ingrained in our way of living, that in our society they are practically disregarded. We celebrate the rare moments which demand our focus to the little things, failing to recognize that these things aren’t actually little at all, and that they deserve our attention more than some of the time.
Try putting yourself in the shoes of someone else. For you, a gourmet Starbucks drink has become what you consider a necessity. It’s a lunch break routine, so familiar that you don’t even get excited for it, it’s just something you do. Now imagine that you’ve gone the past week hoping your leftovers would stretch long enough to keep yourself fed for a week. You usually drink coffee, but recently sold your machine after a layoff, and even the idea of making instant brew fills you with shame. You spend the next weeks with your head down at your new job, determined to get back on your feet, and eventually, you decide to celebrate your hard work with your favorite Starbucks beverage– an iced Caramel latte with extra caramel drizzle.
Take a moment to really internalize your hypothetical feelings at this moment. You are excited, proud, and grateful beyond words. You don’t for a second view this as “just a coffee”, but a reward, a motivator, a privilege. You are able to practice gratitude naturally, because you are actively aware of the true significance this moment holds. What if we viewed all the “little things” in this way, expressing gratitude for even those that appear normal? What if we become more aware of how “normal” is not the same for everyone, revealing our inclination to take common things for granted or denounce their worth.
To truly convince you of why the Neutrino Effect is worth learning about, I want to circle back to our chemistry discussion. This behavior of engaging in something you like, getting your favorite Starbucks, releases dopamine and serotonin, powerful brain chemicals which play a large factor in our happiness. Dopamine, influencing feelings of reward and satisfaction, and serotonin, affecting happiness and optimism, are two of what are considered to be “happy chemicals”, being associated with our capacity for experiencing enjoyment in life.
Therefore, if you find that you still aren’t content with your life, even though you’ve had some big accomplishments lately, then maybe you’re looking for happiness in the wrong places, or the wrong things. Truly profiting from the pleasures of life entails reframing your mindset to view common occurrences as fundamental occurrences, emphasizing that their abundance is necessitated by their significance, not a sign of a lack thereof.
To develop a more positive outlook, we must practice gratitude daily. Gratitude has been increasingly recognized for its potential to contribute to positive mental effects, such as a reduction in depressive symptoms and a more fulfilling social life. For information on how you can develop a grateful mindset, check out my article which walks you through daily gratitude.
Another way to use your newfound awareness of the Neutrino Effect is to give recognition to those around you for their kindness and hard work. This can be something like writing a thank-you note or just expressing appreciation in conversation, both activities which seem small, but have invaluable mental, emotional, and social outcomes.
The “little things” are not always as insignificant as we treat them, and a meaningful life of enjoyment lies ahead of us when we choose to place value in all things we do, regardless of their size or frequency.
Next time you go for a walk or run into a friend at the store, allow yourself to be present with this moment as if it’s the only one you’ll ever have. You’ll be surprised at how much more “good” you seem to notice in life, when you celebrate the big and the small.
