Happiness: Enough Already

i can definately concur with that. my parents are forever telling me to brighten up and "feel better". i wish they would understand the ultimate stupidity of that. do they think that by telling me to feel better i will, just because they uttered the words? i dont want to become dependant on anti-depression drugs and rely on them to get me through the day. sometimes i think it's too late. even if they're placebo meds...i dont want to take a pill just to make me happy. i think americans rely too much on money to make them happy and then its failure to do so tends to raise our national suicide rate. it is good to be happy...just not all the time. life isnt perfect...it's a fact we all know. so why cant we accept the sad times in our lives and just move on?

I am a speaker and author who does focus on encouraging others to create more happiness and passion in their lives. Most people I know want more of this in their lives, not less. I don't know anyone else in this field who believes that there is no place for sadness or grief; of course there is. The point is that the pendulum has been swung too far towards the negative and too many people are paralyzed because of extended durations in sadness, greif, despair and victimhood. Helping others realize that they can create the life they want and choose the time they spend in different emotional states is an honor and a privilage....and yes, it makes me happy.

I think everyone must suffer from unhappiness at some point in their life so that they realize that not everything goes as you want it to and that you can't have everything. How do you succeed in life without it? Sadness can be interpreted as being disappointed about something and that gives us reason to try harder.

Amen to that thylacine!

This is why Job and Ecclesiastes have always been two of my favorite books in the Bible. Both of them deal with sadness; Job from the perspective of grief, and Ecclesiastes from the perspective of the meaninglessness of life.

Sadness happens. Even Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. Sure, he raised him from the dead immediately thereafter, but he did show the grief that he felt from losing him in the first place. And now we have a pseudo-medical establishment trying to convince us that sadness is unnatural.

Not even God can wipe away a tear that hasn't been cried.

in response to the comment about complainers.....
talking about problems is how to release the weight from our minds. first you tell others, getting their input and ideas to help you come up with a solution to your problem.
now i do agree about getting away from to people who do nothing to fix whats wrong and just try to bring everyone else down with them.

I think that many people here are confusing what the article constitutes as 'sadness' with 'complaining'. I agree that people who complain all the time are annoying and should probably spend more time doing and less time talking. But for those who are having an 'appropriate reaction' (as the article states) of sadness, then they are perfectly entitled to mope around for a bit. I think that for many people, these periods of sadness are a time of introspection that ultimately provide an insight and perspective not usually gained when someone is totally satisfied with their life. In simpler terms, sadness is the yin to happiness??? yang???or something.

i just want to say thank you to the authors of these books and studies. i have been depressed for most of my life after the death of my father just a week before my fifth birthday. it left me very negative and an outcast from my peers. i am now in my thirties and have been struggeling for years to try to be "happy" and its just not me. over the past several months i have been trying to embrace the real me, the pessimistic me, and finding the so called silver lining in all the "bad". i do see how the negative thoughts lead to illness, but i strongly belive it is not our minds hurting our health but the way we mistreat ourselves when in a depressed state. when we feel sad we tend to overindulge in "comfort foods" in an attempt to be happy again, or we neglect ourselves to try to keep those close to us "protected" from what we our feeling. if we can embrace the "dark side" wouldn't that be better for everyone =)

I think that many people are confusing what the article constitutes as 'sad' with 'complaining'. I agree that people who complain are annoying, and should spend more time doing than talking. However, those people who are having an 'appropriate reaction' (as the article states) of sadness, are perfectly within their entitlement to mope around for a bit. Often this leads to an introspective period that produces an insight and perspective not usually gained from being totally satisfied with life. If you don't like someone who is constantly complaining -- break contact with that person. Don't come on here to post your 'complaints' about the 'complainers'!
I think everyone has had 'sad' periods in their lives, and I know that for me, with the benefit of retrospect, they were the periods in which I learnt the most about myself, and more importantly, how to be empathetic with others. In simple terms, sadness is the yin to happiness' yang...or something.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/165898
Try this link, or just go to newgrounds.com and look up "Smile!". The artist did a very good job of describing how people like me think and feel about society and it's obsession with happiness, in an abstract and depressing way...so be warned.

Sadness is lazy and taking the easy way out. An excuse for not looking a problem in the face and taking action to work through it. An excuse for not having to deal with life in general. It's not fair to those around that person. There is a person like that in my life that I have to deal with everyday, and it is tiring! And annoying. I am a very happy person. I don't mean I'm a bubbly bouncy giggly happy go lucky girl with a big smile plastered on my face 24/7. And my life isn't easy. It is far from easy, being the breadwinner 23 year old with 2 children 2 years and younger and a husband who is currently unemployed, type 1 diabetic with no health insurance, trying to raise a family on $10/hr. I could easily let myself fall into sadness, but I don't see why. I'm so so lucky when I come home to my beautiful family greeting me with big smiles and hugs. Life is full of challenges, and to me those challenges should be exciting, knowing I'll be a better person because of them, knowing I'll be stronger dealing with the struggles and sorrows that come in life. I would get nowhere if I was sad. So it really gets old when this person in my life will see my hardships and hardships of their own and will pout and whine about them. Easy does not mean happy.

Sadness is lazy and taking the easy way out. An excuse for not looking a problem in the face and taking action to work through it. An excuse for not having to deal with life in general. It's not fair to those around that person. There is a person like that in my life that I have to deal with everyday, and it is tiring! And annoying. I am a very happy person. I don't mean I'm a bubbly bouncy giggly happy go lucky girl with a big smile plastered on my face 24/7. And my life isn't easy. It is far from easy, being the breadwinner 23 year old with 2 children 2 years and younger and a husband who is currently unemployed, type 1 diabetic with no health insurance, trying to raise a family on $10/hr. I could easily let myself fall into sadness, but I don't see why. I'm so so lucky when I come home to my beautiful family greeting me with big smiles and hugs. Life is full of challenges, and to me those challenges should be exciting, knowing I'll be a better person because of them, knowing I'll be stronger dealing with the struggles and sorrows that come in life. I would get nowhere if I was sad. So it really gets old when this person in my life will see my hardships and hardships of their own and will pout and whine about them. Easy does not mean happy.

I am so tired of being told to smile. That "order" usually brings on a frown. I'll show my teeth when I want to.

I am so tired os people telling me to smile. I'll show my teeth when I want to. and that "order" usually brings on a frown.

This article causes me happiness. "The normal range of human emotion is not being tolerated"---I agree. You have to fit a certain range to be "normal"---hold down a job, fit
in with society. The intolerant social milieux to the "unhappy" muse---maybe be an important part of bringing about the muse--and the creative genius.

First I have a problem with not citing statistics as in the statement "85% of the population are basically happy". Says who? However, James & Cherry wrote "The grief Relief Handbook". It backs up the article. In one chapter a boy is sad over loosing his pet. His parents want to help by buying him another pet. The book basically says the boy needs to feel the sadness and loss. But what about adult ADD?...Lack of dopamine?.

There is a true "depth in perception" in some levels of sadness that can create one to look for small moments of great joy and insight --and even climb up to the a sardonic level and find humor when the soul is tested. I don't envy people with a drink in their hand and are the 'life of the party' for they hide their fears in enjoying the moment and never enjoying the walk alone --but together...