21 September

Because I think we focus too much on feelings as isolated things, rather than as always part of a context, we tend to favour ‘good’ feelings over bad. We might see happiness, pleasure, love, warmth etc. as ‘good’ feelings, whereas sadness, pain, anger, depression etc. are ‘bad’. It’s often the things we feel as bad that make the profoundest changes to our lives, which represent something we’re going through that is making us grow, and is changing our lives in the most profound ways. We tend to medicalise the bad feelings, whereas they may be the main window into our lives as they really are. The darkest days of our lives are often the days in which our lives are undergoing their most profound changes.