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Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
#21
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
I hate the term 'negative emotions'. Sadness, fear, anger, embarassment, guilt, regret, disappointment... these are all normal emotions.

It's not healthy to be emotionally unhealthy, obviously. To have chronic depression or anxiety... isn't healthy.

But even when it comes to temporary situational depression over bad life events... even that is normal and not 'negative'.

Aside from actually genuine emotional unwellness.... all emotions are normal and exist for a reason. There's no such thing as a 'negative' emotion. There's functional and dyfunctional emotionality and that tends to come down to chronicness, intensity and volatility more than the emotions themselves. Emotions are normal.
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#22
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
Feeling unhappy can sometimes be good. I've seen Inside Out.

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk
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#23
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
I've wanted to see that for ages.
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#24
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
I've been going through very difficult life stuff for a few months. These are serious, legitimate, worrying things. They are NOT improving. In fact, they have begun to scare me, because they find ways of getting worse, when I thought there was no way.

I have been told to stop being nagative, because I'm depressed, fatigued, drained, sick even. How can I behave happily when I don't feel the floor I'm walking on is stable? "Stop focusing on this. Think of something else." This is my everything right now, because my present and my future (and for my kids) is affected in every way by it. Every fucking way. I'll feel these emotions, dammit. I'll get angry. I'll be afraid. I'll feel exhausted. No. I'm not choosing to feel this way. I have no other natural, sane, or reasonable way to feel.

End rant.

Thank you for this thread. Good read.
"Hipster is what happens when young hot people do what old ladies do." -Exian
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#25
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
Let it all out Mama.

P.S. Love your expressiveness.
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#26
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
I have been a strong advocate of the false happiness clause for a very long time.

It is not due to the fact that I am unhappy.

Rather, I understand that a positive outlook on life is not a guarantee that nothing bad will happen.

In the end, the "be positive" spiel is as much a con as prayer.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
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#27
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
(January 27, 2017 at 9:16 am)Vic Wrote:
(January 27, 2017 at 9:11 am)Tonus Wrote: The problem is that it is being stated as an absolute: "if you do A, you always get B."  In other words, the premise is making a promise it can't keep.

That is one part of the problem. The other part is that it implies that if you don't get B, you're doing something wrong in life or something is wrong with you. It puts the person at fault for their own misery, which is not always the case, and it demonizes negative feelings, which are necessary in a healthy emotional life.

As I said, this isn't to say that looking for positives in life or striving to be happier or to make one's life better is wrong. Just that this type of thinking is sure to do the opposite.

Part of the problem, IMO, is that humans are not very good at accurately determining the extent to which we're at fault for anything. So depending on our mindset, we might give ourselves too much or too little blame or credit when things do or don't work out. It also means that you can't apply a specific solution to everyone's situation because some people will be motivated to act if you convince them that they're the reason their lives are so bad, but others will be crushed by such a claim and sink into despair.

I guess in that sense, the notion of a positive outlook as a defacto problem-solver is a way of trying to find the simplest solution to complicated problems. They're the fad diets of attitude adjustment.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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#28
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
Meh, negative emotions are normal emotions.  It's not as if they have to be one or the other and iof theyre normal they can;t be negative..or vv.  

Bad shit happens...and it's normal to feel bad when bad shit happens.....but it's not exactly productive, lol. It's often easier to change your state of mind than it is to change your circumstances, and -in my experience- it's easier to change those circumstances when you're in a positive frame of mind anyway.

LOL, hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#29
RE: Let's talk about the 'tyranny of happiness'
Totally clicked on this because I thought it said lets talk about the tranny of happiness. And lets face it, who wouldn't click on that?
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