2 things that prevent us from being happy

Arthur Schopenhauer was one of the first major Western thinkers to introduce elements of Eastern philosophy into his work. Usually he came to rather pessimistic conclusions, but in the treatise "Aphorisms of Worldly Wisdom" he deviated from a negative view. Describing what is needed for a happy life in this world, Schopenhauer points to one of the main problems of our existence:

“Even with a superficial observation, one cannot fail to notice two enemies of human happiness: grief and boredom. It must be added that since we manage to move away from one of them, in so far as we approach the other, and vice versa, so that our whole life proceeds in a more or less frequent oscillation between these two troubles.

This is due to the fact that both evils are in double antagonism with each other: in the external, objective and in the internal, subjective. On the outside, need and deprivation breed grief, while abundance and security breed boredom. Accordingly, the lower classes are in a constant struggle with want, that is, with grief, and the class of rich, "decent" people - in a continuous, often truly desperate struggle with boredom."

Blogger Zat Rana looked at these two causes of unhappiness from a psychological perspective and shared his findings.

We're stuck between pleasure and pain

Traditional psychology and neurosciences have suggested that humans have evolved neural pathways that are responsible for expressing anger and joy over the course of evolution. And since then, from birth, they are “embedded” in the human brain. In support, they argued that emotions are universal, they can be identified by studying the human body. Moreover, they remain the same in different cultures and in different environments.

This view is firmly entrenched. Most of us would probably agree that there are specific phenomena such as anger and joy, and that you can see them in others at one time or another. However, there is another opinion - the theory of the construction of emotions.

According to her, although we experience something that is roughly defined as anger, it does not exist in the specific sense in which we are used to thinking about it. It is a complex combination of all the processes that take place in the body at a particular moment to help us navigate. And they are constantly changing.

The brain reads information from our body and from the environment to give us a rough idea of what to do. This is how we experience an ever-changing reality.

Everything else, especially emotions and consciousness, exists only because we ourselves create linguistic differences between them. Anger is anger because we collectively call it anger.

Let's go back to suffering and boredom. Suffering signals: something is wrong, something needs to be fixed. It continues in one form or another until the problem is resolved. Pleasure is its opposite, which is perceived as a reward. But when you get whatever you want, it leads to boredom. Basically, we are stuck between these two phenomena. Having got rid of one, we approach the other.

To break out of this vicious circle and be happier, develop a mind-body connection

To solve the problem, Schopenhauer suggested leaving worries about the outside world and plunging into the inner world of thoughts. But if the theory of constructing emotions is correct, then thoughts will not be salvation. Often times, when bored or distressed, they only add to the resentment. And the option to think about something else in order to forget about the unpleasant does not work.

Another solution is to develop a more holistic mind-body connection. That is, pay as much attention to the sensations of the body as we pay to thoughts.

By observing the sensations of the body and not clinging to them, one can notice the constantly changing nature of the emotional processes being experienced.

Few people consciously concentrate on bodily sensations, noticing their movements or the generation of feelings. The part of consciousness that monitors bodily sensations is so automated that we cease to notice them. But if you do it on purpose, it can be healing. A mindful approach will allow you to notice that your daily experiences are more than what you see on the surface.

Try to pay more attention to this. But remember that the problems of suffering and boredom cannot be solved by addressing only one thing: thoughts (subjective, internal) or bodily sensations (objective, external). The relationship between them is important.

conclusions

Regardless of whether Schopenhauer was right about everything or not, one cannot but respect his bold attempts to see reality as it is, and not be content with baseless idealism. His entire philosophy is structured clearly and coherently, and much of it is understandable and applicable in modern life.

Based on it, we can draw the following conclusion. To balance changing emotional processes, it is necessary to develop the connection between the mind and the body, taking into account both links. By paying attention to bodily sensations without explaining them with thoughts, it is possible to bring to the fore the feelings and sensations that usually remain disguised.