Disentangling Our Nervous States
A heightened state of anxiety seems to be the norm. But have feelings really taken over the world? Is it enough to just calm down?
The following articles are related to ‘Book’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life.
A heightened state of anxiety seems to be the norm. But have feelings really taken over the world? Is it enough to just calm down?
When we just paint, or just do anything, we are working from our raw feelings. These feelings carry live connections to the whole context of life: everything which has ever happened and is happening right now, more than the rational mind could ever hope to be aware of.
The person is always more — infinitely more — than the addict. Thinking of the addict as your real nature, liable to erupt at any moment if you’re not careful, may be helpful as a practical measure, but is it really true?
Can the 12-step programme liberate us from a cult of individualism and materialism? Enjoying a good feeling from simply being alive may be a natural thing, but it’s not the default these days; we need to actively work on it.
It seems not only that everyone is in pain, but that there’s an underlying assumption that we shouldn’t be, creating an extra layer of suffering on top of the pain itself.
Are we ultimately responsible for who we are and the choices we make? Can we choose to be the person who is able to make them? And if not, does this really change anything in the way we live?
In Things That Bother Me, Galen Strawson includes a beautiful account of his own experience as an ‘unstoried’ self, someone to whom it simply does not come naturally to experience life as a story. I feel amazingly affirmed by Strawson’s words.
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