Category Archives: Emotion

The Wheat And The Chaff

We come into contact with so many schools of thought in our lives — philosophies, religions, self-help strategies, suggested ways to reach happiness, and so forth.  It is tempting to look at each of these and decide if they are …   Continue reading →

Basic Processes In Feelings

I’ve been thinking lately about some of the “processes” that might underlie our feelings.  As discussed in earlier posts, my own view of feelings is that they are, ultimately, physical processes implemented in the brain.  On this view, our feelings …   Continue reading →

The Measure of Happiness: How YOU Feel

Lately I’ve come to realize the obvious:  in the pursuit of happiness there is only one measure of success — whether you feel happy.  When you’re trying to pursue happiness, several points: Different people like different things — what makes …   Continue reading →

Happiness And Being Okay With Anything

In thinking about the people I know or know about who seem to be extremely happy, I’ve noticed one thing they all seem to have in common:  they all seem to be “okay” with almost anything happening.  In other words, …   Continue reading →

Insults And Counter-Insults — Is There A Better Way?

Why is it that when we get insulted, it helps us feel better to insult the other person back?  On the face of it, our counter-insult does nothing to refute whatever negative thing they just said about us.  For example: …   Continue reading →

On Being Yourself

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.  — Ralph Waldo Emerson “Be yourself!”  We hear this phrase in many contexts — as advice for children worried about how …   Continue reading →

Feeling Like You’re Not Doing Your Best (And A Radical Solution)

Do you ever feel like you’re not doing everything you could to make your life the best it could be?  Do you get that lousy feeling that you should have read a book on investing your money instead of surfing …   Continue reading →

Conscious Decision Making

We’re constantly making decisions — decisions about what to eat, which side of the street to walk on, what relationships to be in, whether to stay at our job or quit.  In short, as long as we’re behaving (which is …   Continue reading →

Is Low-Anxiety, High-Performance Possible?

In my view, anxiety has three purposes:  1) to make us pay attention to possible danger, 2) to motivate us to act so as to avoid that danger, and 3) to physically prepare our bodies to act. Anxiety is very …   Continue reading →

Two Techniques For Reducing Anxiety

Here are two techniques for dealing with anxiety, which I’ve been putting into practice in my own life and have had some success with.  Like most (all) anxiety techniques, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. Technique #1: This technique …   Continue reading →