Socrates Epistles

What do you get when you put 100 happy people together ? Well, lots of laughs, for starters. And a few common traits, says best-selling author Marci Shimoff, who interviewed 100 unconditionally happy people for Happy for No Reason: Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out.      Among the happy 100, she called them, one shared habit is focusing on the solution rather than the problem instead of worrying or complaining, they tend to concentrate on the good in the situation and on improving it.      Another truth, “Happy people let love lead in their lives,” she says. “Although they have the same kind of fears, pains and disappointments as the rest of us, they simply have different habits that allow them to keep their hearts open in their daily lives.” One aspect of this is focusing on gratitude. People who are happy for no reason don’t necessarily have more in their lives to be grateful for; they simply focus more often on gratitude throughout their day. ...

  GUILT AND FEAR FEELING GUILTY  Feeling guilty can be normal and healthy. When people become aware that they have hurt others or hurt themselves, it is normal for them to feel guilty. In these situations, people feel guilty because they are aware that they have hurt someone. Addiction causes pain in lives of addicted people and the people around them. Addiction means that a person continues to drink or use drugs despite negative consequences such as breaking promises, lying, stealing and hurting people in other ways.   As addiction progresses over time, the pain inflicted on others becomes more severe and more frequent. Thus, addicted people may initially feel guilty, but stop feeling guilty after a while. This is part of the denial process. People stop feeling guilt and other feelings they become emotionally numb. During recovery, feelings start to return. People become aware of the ways that their addiction has hurt themselves and others. People may become floode...

Everyone gets sad. When people feel sad, they may feel down in the dumps, bummed out, discourage, gloomy, and miserable. Being sad after losing a job is a normal reaction to loss. Sometimes people become depressed, which can be more severe and longer lasting than sadness. When people feel depressed, they may feel very unhappy and have a lack of energy most of the time, not enjoy the things they used to enjoy, perhaps have insomnia or sleep too much, and have an inability to concentrate and think straight.   Depression can be a natural reaction to traumatic or intensely emotional situations. It is normal to become depressed after a Spouse dies or someone learns that he or she has cancer. Similarly, depression can be a natural reaction to situations when the physical body is out of balance. Thus, depression is an expected side effect of withdrawal from alcohol and other sedative drugs. At the same time, some people who are not having problems in their lives will experience depr...