for some of us happiness and excitement never seem to last for very long every time we finally take pride in ourselves and develop a confidence about the future something adverse seems to happen within a relatively short order it might be something that we find ourselves actively doing that collapses our Spirits or we start to worry acutely about a matter that suddenly enters our minds or an incident occurs from out of the blue that unsettles us maybe we read something online that seems mean-minded and worrying or we catch sight of ourselves in the mirror and feel
repulsed or we suddenly think of something we said or did 7 and a half years ago that may have been misinterpreted and misconstrued and start to Panic or by some odd impulse that we really don't understand and so can't resist we do something foolish and contrary to our normal values which brings on guilt and shame and as a result we are brought back to down to earth fairly sharply we end up only hours or days after the good mood began in a familiar place of fear anxiety and disappointment it can be as if without quite
realizing it we are operating under some sort of secret law Thou shalt never be exuberant Thou shalt never live life too much to the full Thou shalt never be too happy Thou shalt not believe in yourself Thou shalt worry a lot where might such perverse and sad edicts have come from it may be the result of growing up in an environment where our flourishing was somehow deemed unwelcome and provocative had we ever been too conspicuously happy we might have upset a parent who was battling a sense of Despair or resignation and was furious at the
deprivations they had once had to endure we may have grown up to associate a low fearful mood with safety sadness means you don't get attacked it doesn't provoke Envy it keeps you out of trouble when whenever happiness does seem on the cards a part of us will hence be very keen to return us to a lower altitude as soon as possible to achieve our ends there may be some favorite websites we like to go to that confirm that we are unattractive or strange or in danger we may provoke arguments insults or offense we've got a
repertoire of secret skills to wipe the smile off our own faces were any of this to ring bells we should ask ourselves what incentives against happiness and self-satisfaction might there have been in our early Lives who might we have upset with our joy was there a conflict between our flourishing and someone else's sense of well-being then we need to reassure the frightened child in us that the person who demanded our sadness as a price for their protection is no longer in authority over us we don't have to apologize for being attractive or intelligent or gifted
or Within Reach of stability sanity potency and good spirits we are whatever we once believed allowed to live without continuous sadness and fear
