should you be happy all the time or should you experience all the other emotions from time to time?

Question

what is better

should you give your life room for anger and sadness or should you just try you best to depresss those feelings.

Answer 1

You can't help but feel the entire range of emotions. When you have a positive emotion, dwell on it. We have far too few happy people in this world. If you have a negative emotion, try to release it. This is not repressing it, you're just releasing it from your body. Only allow yourself to be depressed for 15 min, then cheer yourself up. If you stay positive, good things are more likely to come to you.

Answer 2

The experience of all emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, passion, embarassment, etc.) indicates how open you are to the world around you. There are a million outside stimuli that incite a reaction from us, and each person reacts differently to that stimuli. The only way I can think that a person can repress emotion is if they shut themselves from a part of their universe and that in itself is a tragedy. When negative feelings come up, embrace the fact that you are a feeling human being, and then move on.

Answer 3

We definitely should not be happy all the time...if you were, would you care if you saw a starving child, someone that was hurting, or things like that? No, we feel sadness, and then we do something to try to help. Anger is fine when it is righteous anger. I don't think you should get angry just because you didn't get your way. Personally, when I want to kill my ex-husband or one of my children, I say a quick prayer and I calm down. Envy gets you no where...work on liking what you have, and that emotion will probably not surface often.

Answer 4

Before addressing a question like this, we need to clarify the terms. What is meant by "happiness" here? Is it simply blithe enjoyment, the satisfaction of simple desires such as for sex or ice cream? If this were the case we might equate happiness with hedonism. There are however, alternative ways of viewing happiness. A Buddhist for instance would consider the above description of happiness as hedonism to be far from true happiness. In fact, satisfaction of desire alone would actually impede one's quest for happiness, as happiness for the Buddhist is the absence of desire, the calm and inner serenity which is gained from the realization that one does not require money, sex, and power to be happy. Suffice it to say that in order to answer the question satisfactorily we must be clear about what we mean when we use the term "happy," as one person's definition might openly contradict another's.
Concerning the second half of the question, we should think about the consequences of experiencing just one emotion all the time. As a way of illustrating what I mean think about how much tastier food is when you're really hungry, versus when you are just bored or are eating out of gluttony. When food is abundant and your appetite is always satiated, eating is not as enjoyable as when you're body really needs the food. Similarly, if we were constantly experiencing pleasurable emotions, they would lose their poignant significance since they would not be contrasted against painful emotional experiences. In other words, we don't appreciate what we have, be it food or pleasurable emotions, until we don't have it.
A second consequence of being "mono-emotional" if you will, is that the functions served by our other emotions are not fulfilled. So-called "negative" emotions such as anger and fear may be more useful to us than we often give them credit for. They incite us to act when we need to, such as when we are the victims of injustice. Anger for instance causes us to stand up and fight, to refuse to lie down and be complacent when we or others are being stepped on. While negative emotions can certainly have dangerous consequences, the danger of not experiencing them at all may be altogether more horrifying. I quote the Holocaust historian Ian Kershaw who once said, "The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference." Some things justify, perhaps even morally require, the experience of "bad" emotions.

Answer 5

By all means experience all the emotions you can. Some are negative and some are positive but only by truly feeling all of them can you learn from your mistakes, grow spiritually and become a better person. Feeling and being aware of all emotions also makes you more understanding of others and what they may be experiencing. In doing so, you may be more inclined to help them...and that is what makes this world a better place!

Answer 6

I love a quote from the movie "Heathers" on this topic.

"If you were happy every day of your life you wouldn't be a human being, you'd be a game show host."

Feelings other than happy are a part of being human, you will feel them whether you acknowledge them or not. But surpressing emotions is a pretty bad idea. To fully embrace life you have to embrace all of it, the good and the bad. If nothing bad ever happens, if nothing negative is ever experienced or felt, how can you learn and grow as a person?

Answer 7

Repressing feelings of sadness, anger, etc., is not healthy. We are humans...we are made to feel. No one is happy all the time. I try to keep an optimistic outlook on life, but I get down sometimes; sometimes I'm cranky. That's life...it'd be pretty boring without a range of emotions. :-)

Answer 8

If we were to never experience any other emotions, happiness would be taken for granted and mean nothing. I say experience all life has to offer, including any emotions that pop up along the way.

Answer 9

You should always feel different emotions, it helps you learn from your mistakes and is natuerally a part of the human life, without emotions you would not get to feel those wonderful butterflies you get when you think your inlove all the time.

Answer 10

Experiencing a full range of emotions gives us a better appreciation of the "good" ones and motivates us to structure our lives to be more able to maintain the good and lessen the bad ones.