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PSYCHED

                                              November 28, 2001
                                        Rev:  April    24, 2011

Once upon a time, on alt.gothic:

   [ref]

There was a discussion
about will and emotion,              Una: "If we can choose to
where many people were               feel anything we want why
inclined to take the side            do so many people choose
that you have no conscious           to be miserable?"
control of your emotions.
                                         The trend in responses
  Myself, I take the side that           seemed to be:
  you can develop a fair degree
  of control over your emotions          "You can't choose to be
  if you work at it, and that            happy, but you can
  the "oh, I am overwhelmed by           choose to be miserable."
  emotion" schtick is usually a
  sign of a kind of laziness, a
  self-indulgence.

                        A simple thing you can try: Force an
                        exaggerated smile on your face, see
                        how you feel.  Force an exaggerated
                        frown on your face, and watch your
                        feelings.  Most people report feeling
                        a little more up when smiling, a
                        little more down with the frown.

                        Hence the irritating self-help advice,
                        ala "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".

                                         But just because it's totally
                                         uncool doesn't prove that it's
                                         totally stupid.


The jock culture has come up
with the concept of "psyching
yourself up". They evidently
think they can will themselves             So, why would someone choose
into a positive state of mind.             to be miserable?
Are they totally deluded?
                                           (1) Some people appear to be drama
  McGWIRE                                      addicts.  They want their life
                                               to be in a state of soap opera
                                               level turmoil, or else they are
                                               not really living.

                                           (2) Some people seem to be
                                               wired to think that mommy is
                                               going to come over and kiss
                                               them if they cry hard enough.


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