Can we please stop being happy?!
On Sunday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with my loved one. The administration was done (miracles exist), my guests canceled due to too much snow and codes on the road, the groceries were in and it was white outside. Since the snacks and wine shouldn't go to waste, we pulled up a table with treats. I was buried under the blanket, a fresh book on my lap and he was watching Discovery Channel. Man, was I happy. But of the bursting apart kind. While nothing world-shattering was even happening. Strange, actually.
Not at all, says psychiatrist De Wachter. It would be good if we were all a bit happier with something small. Mr. De Wachter can't empty his waiting room, the waiting list for a consultation grows by the day and all because humanity is desperately searching for happiness. According to him, it all comes from the abolition of heaven. Now that the promise of the afterlife is gone, we want to get the most out of life on earth, he tells in a speech at the Brainwash Festival.
I sometimes wonder how everyone manages to be so happy. Just have another drink at that hip-and-delightful party, after which you grab your suitcase for a trip to an undiscovered island off the coast of Hupseflups around the equator, all while being particularly naturally slim and with a hairstyle so cool as if you had been sitting in the hairdresser's chair all day. I see this flash by as I just wake up from my not-so-charming nap – with my hair messy on the couch – which usually hits around nine o'clock in the evening, probably just after consuming the leftovers of what was once fresh food and still in the fridge. Far from how I should be spending my evening, I think. Because that doesn't directly make you happy, at most rested, and what good is that? By the way, it doesn't make sense, because we have enough to pinch ourselves about, of course.
The solution is simpler than I thought, it just happens to you. The difficulties of life give rise to love, says De Wachter. Pain, sorrow, vulnerability, these are all things we prefer not to show, but which make you appreciate life more and the people around you. The version that can't be made prettier is, of course, not put on social media, which is why we only see styled pictures of smiling and terribly happy people. Every now and then someone breaks this pattern, but then with a lot of self-mockery because otherwise, you quickly become the leper in the online world. Nothing to it, just complaints. But apparently, you are indeed much better off if you are a bit unhappy, because that makes you happier again.
“I advocate for sharing more vulnerability, sensitivity, and the small sorrows with each other, so that people can be a bit of each other's psychiatrist,” he emphasizes. Look, that not only ensures that you become happier in life, but it also offers opportunities on your CV. Adeline, head of Amayzine a.k.a. psychiatrist. I think it's something. Happy.
Source: evajinek.nl
