We've only met once, but you struck me as pretty content outside of specific areas that aren't discontents so much as steady-burn ambitions. Might be a good question to ask people who know you better.
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curiously, I am the opposite... I find 'happiness' to be ill-posed and I don't grok it, but I grok contentment
I have no idea whether or not I'm happy, and kinda don't care, but I like being mostly contented and would like to stay there
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so I basically buy that *moods* fall into a 2x2 around high-arousal vs. low-arousal and positive vs. negative. high-arousal positive = excited, low-arousal positive = peaceful, high-arousal negative = afraid or angry, low-arousal negative = despairing.
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I like the high-arousal/positive quadrant best and the things that have improved my life most are putting in place systems/processes that *recurrently* create opportunities to get there.
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my experience of mood issues has mostly been high-arousal/negative (intense anger, fear, shame) rather than the "ugh, don't want to do anything" ennui some people describe.
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But tactics for changing high-arousal/negative into low-arousal/positive have never appealed to me or done much.
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Mostly what works for me is getting low-arousal/positive emotions directly with SSRIs and sleep, and fixing whatever’s left by finding more high-arousal/positive opportunities.
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Hypothesis: it’s people who feel ennui/boredom/jadedness/existential angst who benefit from the “calming” philosophical approaches of “nothing is Essentially wrong”. Low-neg -> low-pos.
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Those of us who are prone to high-neg emotionality need high-pos aspirations to get us out of there.
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So the right response is “looks like you’re mad, let’s go party!” ? 😂

