The power of the five senses to interpret happy moments
“The moment my dead senses came back to life, I fell in love with life again.”

★★★ Gretchen Rubin's new book that brought 3.5 million readers to tears
★★★ [New York Times] Bestseller
★★★ [Originals] Adam Grant Highly Recommended

A new book by Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author with 3.5 million copies sold and an authority on happiness research.
This book contains methods for finding happiness in everyday life through the senses.
The author discovered by chance that he had a problem with his eyes that could lead to blindness.
Afterwards, the author realized how precious the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch were, and decided to collect the numerous senses surrounding him.

This book follows that special journey and teaches you how to transform your senses into a 'happiness engine.'
Focusing on your five senses in Gretchen Rubin's systematic way will help you see the world through new eyes.
Happiness is not something far away, but is hidden in every little moment we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
For readers trapped in the shackles of repetitive daily life and tiring days, 《FIVE SENSE》 will teach them how to find moments of sense and become happier more easily and often.

I feel like I've finally found a way out of the fog that has been holding me chronically.
I try to live more fully within my body by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching the world around me rather than staying in my head.
While I will enjoy the sensation itself purely, I will use its intensity and emotional power to communicate with others as well as myself.
---From "Prologue_We live missing out on happiness every day"

Despite all the efforts I made in these various ways, I was still missing the most familiar and precious sight.
One time I went to a men's clothing store to buy Jamie a gift, but I had no idea what to choose.
“Does your husband wear a sweater?” asked the friendly staff member.
I answered in confusion.
“Well, I don’t know.” Was Jamie wearing a sweater? He did have one.
Because I saw the clothes on the shelf.
But did you actually wear it? ... ... Later, when I got home, I watched Jamie closely as he was solving a crossword puzzle.
Since when did Jamie start wearing a digital watch? And he wasn't wearing a sweater today.
Jamie looked up and met my eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” “I’m just looking.” “Why? Stop looking.” Jamie said with a laugh.
Even though he was so precious to me, I barely noticed Jamie.
This absolutely had to change.
---From "The Pleasure of the Sight - Why No One Has Seen the Gorilla"

Hearing connects us to the world.
It tells us what happens behind us, above us, in the dark, and even before we are born.
Sounds can instantly excite me, calm me, or change my mood.
It can wake me up from a deep sleep or make me fall back asleep.
As it turns out, human hearing is amazingly sensitive and sophisticated.
We detect a wide range of sounds, determine where they come from, and filter out noise to capture interesting sounds.
---From "Snow Falling on the Water of Hearing - Why Silence is Noisy"

A while ago, as I entered the lobby of an office building, a fountain sculpture surrounded by plants caught my eye.
It was a space that would have seemed sophisticated in the 1970s.
The plants were a bit shabby and the statues were old-fashioned, but that didn't matter.
It wasn't the appearance that stopped me, but the scent.
When I was a child, I visited the local library every week.

The library fountain gave off a special scent of water and earth.
It was a unique scent that was hard to describe as good or bad, and it gave the impression of bringing the smells from the outdoors indoors.
The fountain disappeared when the library was remodeled, and I didn't think of it for decades.
But the scent of this office lobby instantly took me back to the library of my childhood.

I vividly recalled the memory of watching the slow stream of water while my mother and younger sibling waited at the loan counter.
The excitement of heading to the library on a cold winter day as a child came back to me.
That scent brought me back to the library that had been the love of my life and was now gone.
---From "The scent of hot sunlight - even the scentless is a scent"

The 'reminiscence bump' refers to the tendency for adults to most vividly recall events that occurred between the ages of 15 and 25.
By focusing on my five senses, I was able to recall more periods in my life.
As I paid attention to the memories that had been stored but not consciously remembered, they began to surface one by one.
Thinking back to the taste I used to enjoy, I felt happy but also somewhat regretful.
Because so much has changed or disappeared completely in my life.
---From "The Taste of Tea and Cake - The Magic of Ketchup"

Our sense of touch does many things, but one of its most important functions is to help us connect with others.
When Eleanor was little, she would hold my hand whenever we walked together and would often kiss my hand.
The feeling of a small, warm hand touching mine is my most precious memory from that time.
Many people want to touch it and want someone to touch it.
Especially babies do not develop properly if they are not touched.
Babies who have skin-to-skin contact gain weight faster, sleep better, cry less, and suffer from fewer infections.
On the other hand, if social contact does not occur, the consequences can be dire.
Babies raised in Romania's severely understaffed orphanages in the 1980s and 1990s often grew slowly and developed behavioral and cognitive problems.

---From "Touching the Brain with Tactile Fingers - Why Holding This Stone Brings Good Luck"