How are you feeling?

[Vic]

we have feelings to try to interpret what our emotions are signalling to us. If we feel bad it’s our subconscious telling us to find the source of the feeling and do something, on the other hand if we feel good it’s also our unconscious parts saying ‘hey this feels nice, find out what’s causing it and do more of that’ though positive feelings can be just as much of a trickery as negative ones.
Feeling are conscious reactions to our unconscious emotions. Without feelings how do we navigate and interpret our environment?


May be the trick is to stop seeing feelings as good and bad and be curious about their origin instead.

Remember that our emotions can be tinkered with to make us feel a certain way so we become loosh for the machine, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with negative emotions per se, only when we wallow in them, same said for positive emotions. Feelings are great teachers, when we are able to feel what we feel objectively and be inquisitive we cut can off the feeding tube.

This says to me that neither positive nor negative feelings are reliable without conscious exploration of their source and origin.

The fun part is figuring out it all out.

Oh wow, I just absorbed the last part of that C session you quoted -

Q: (V) The subconscious is part of the soul?

A: One and same.

That's another answer to a question I didn't know I needed to ask. My mind just got expanded with an accompanying feeling of joy and relief. And a sense of 'remembering'

 

[Vic]

What I've learnt is that it's more about being "mentally well" regardless of what's happening and how we feel about it. How we feel about something is based on personal experience and our childhood programming. Knowing thyself isn't just about knowing how we feel, it's trying to understand why we feel like that, where it comes from, whether it's useful or not (which is subjective) and deciding what to do with what we know. Our individual feeling can in some cases keep us blind and unaware because they're usually not objective (or logical), hence needing a network.

Knowing how you truly feel can be helpful, even if it's just accepting and acknowledging that feeling so it's not subconsciously running programmes or interfering with your day to day life. I remember seeing Laura in a podcast saying something like mastering/ controlling your emotions is a really powerful tool to taking control of your life. I can't remember how it was exactly said but that's the jist.

So much truth and insight in what you say, lilyalic. Thank you.

 

[Vic]

I think it is because we are blind and unaware that we need to listen to Socrates about "know yourself". What Socrates says about "Know Yourself" is very interesting. It's not a light sentence, but one of great depth.



It is not a trick or a distraction, but the contrary, I think so.

I see it, loreta. Thank you so much!
Sometimes I'm closed, other times I'm open.
When I'm open, like now, stuff pours in. Beautiful stuff.

 

[Vic]

I think, and I could be wrong, this spectrum is tied to marketing i.e. to be happy, you need to buy stuff.

I could be wrong but I think using the unhappiness - happiness spectrum as a measure of whether one's life is going according to plan is a western thing and as I said above, tied to the accumulation of material possessions or experiences tied to having more and more money to access.

I think a better measure is about cultivating meaning in life. If one is living a life that they largely feel is meaningful to them, they are content, whether if in a moment they are happy or unhappy, and if they don't feel like their life has meaning, then they are discontent even when they experience temporary happiness.

I 100% agree with you, SOTTREADER. The PTB's knowledge of how human emotions work is arguably their most effective tool.
And 'meaning' - well, maybe a life that has 'meaning' is one that has successfully been navigated, emotionally, by the one living it.

Thank you so much.

 

[iamthatis]

I think, and I could be wrong, this spectrum is tied to marketing i.e. to be happy, you need to buy stuff.

I could be wrong but I think using the unhappiness - happiness spectrum as a measure of whether one's life is going according to plan is a western thing and as I said above, tied to the accumulation of material possessions or experiences tied to having more and more money to access.

I think a better measure is about cultivating meaning in life. If one is living a life that they largely feel is meaningful to them, they are content, whether if in a moment they are happy or unhappy, and if they don't feel like their life has meaning, then they are discontent even when they experience temporary happiness.

Yeah, meaning is a much deeper well to draw from than happiness, which are like the bubbles at the top. You can't get enough water with just bubbles.

I like the quote by Gabor Mate in When the Body Says No, where he talks about the 'terminal optimism' or happiness that is often characteristic of cancer patients:

As an antidote to terminal optimism, I have recommended the power of negative thinking. “Tongue in cheek, of course,” I quickly add. “What I really believe in is the power of thinking.” As soon as we qualify the word thinking with the adjective positive, we exclude those parts of reality that strike us as “negative.” That is how most people who espouse positive thinking seem to operate. Genuine positive thinking begins by including all our reality. It is guided by the confidence that we can trust ourselves to face the full truth, whatever that full truth may turn out to be.

[...]

In order to heal, it is essential to gather the strength to think negatively. Negative thinking is not a doleful, pessimistic view that masquerades as “realism.” Rather, it is a willingness to consider what is not working. What is not in balance? What have I ignored?What is my body saying no to? Without these questions, the stresses responsible for our lack of balance will remain hidden.

Even more fundamentally, not posing those questions is itself a source of stress. First, “positive thinking” is based on an unconscious belief that we are not strong enough to handle reality. Allowing this fear to dominate engenders a state of childhood apprehension. Whether or not the apprehension is conscious, it is a state of stress. Second, lack of essential information about ourselves and our situation is one of the major sources of stress and one of the potent activators of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress response. Third, stress wanes as independent, autonomous control increases.

His book is a good reminder that when happiness becomes an ideology, it can cause a massive amount of harm.

 

[Konstantin]

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a strange feeling that something very bad is going to happen. It’s like an inner fear that something big and terrible is coming, and it gives me chills. It feels like something has already started, but the ending is still hanging in the air. I don’t even know how to describe it with words.

In the past few years, I’ve noticed some kind of unexplainable pattern, maybe a coincidence, maybe synchronicity, or maybe nothing at all.

First, there’s a wave of silence on the global scene, or at least that’s how I perceive it. Then, I start seeing posts on social media about the deaths of public figures, either in the country or the region. After some time, I hear about the death of someone closer, a distant relative, a friend, or even a family member. Sometimes, instead of that, everyone at home suddenly gets sick with some weird bug and unusual symptoms.

It is like a wave of negative energy coming from far, close to me, and I can feel it. I have that strange feeling of fear and sadness, but at the same time, my rational mind is telling me that I can't change what is coming, but only prepare for it.