I read this over at Meg's blog and absolutely had to repost because it's so true and so important.
“I actually attack the concept of happiness. I don’t mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying 'write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep', and 'cheer up' and 'happiness is our birthright' and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say 'Quick! Move on! Cheer up!' I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word 'happiness' and to replace it with the word 'wholeness'. Ask yourself 'is this contributing to my wholeness?' and if you’re having a bad day, it is.”
Hugh Mackay, psychologist and social researcher
*image via here
3 comments:
Yes to all of this. I had a few months at the end of the last year when I was depressed, and nothing I did helped me feel better. I finally just decided that sometimes it's ok to wallow in being sad, and embraced it.
thank for this post! I absolutely agree. I always feel ashamed when I feel sad, down, frustrated, etc. Like if something was wrong with how I am. The idea of wholeness sounds great to me.
Yes Hollie, embracing it is key! Barbara I used to feel the same way when I was depressed. It's so hard though when you are in the thick of it right?
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