Asking — and answering — life's interesting questions
There are a lot of problems and difficulties right now, from increasing impacts from climate change to political unrest to concern about the future of artificial intelligence.
We care about our readers, so we just want to check in with you: How are you doing?
Related questions: How are we doing? What is the greatest problem facing humanity? How do you maintain hope?
People often have a complicated relationship with their own past. Which raises the question: Are you proud of where you are from?
There are many reasons why you might be proud of where you grew up, some personal and some others more general.
For the personal, you might note the place you learned to ride a bike, or had your first kiss, or made a particular friend. Or the place you are from might be notable for some other reason, like being a champion in a sport, or producing a famous person.
There are just as many reasons why you might be ashamed of where you are from, following the same general types. If something bad or traumatic happened to you as a child, you might easily associate that with where it took place. Or your home town might be famous for something negative, like drug use, or producing a serial killer.
Of course, it seems likely that where you come from produces in you both shame and pride in some combination. Just like people, places are complicated, with any number of both good and bad points. Does the good outweigh the bad, in your opinion? Or vice versa?
The last thing to consider is just how you define “from”. You can be “from” a house, a neighborhood, a town, a state, or a country. And you might well feel a mixture of pride and shame, in different proportions, over each one. It’s perfectly reasonable, for example, to feel pride in your country while still being ashamed of some of the things it has done.
Do you feel great pride or shame over where you originated? Why do you feel that way, and how has it changed as you’ve gotten older?
Related questions: Where are you from? What makes a place feel like home? What are you the most proud of?
There are many things in the world today that can make you feel bad. But what can lift your spirits and make you feel good when you need it?
Share why if you wish.
Are there situations where you know you shouldn’t react, but you can’t help but to roll your eyes with exasperation? What are they?
Share why if you wish.
If you rank your normal level of happiness on a scale of 1 to 10, can you increase that number? Can you change your default happiness?
If you think about the people you know, you can probably divide them into the camp of “happy people” or “unhappy people”. That is, people who naturally tend to be happy, regardless of what is going on around them. Or those who seem grumpy as a default setting.
Sure, everybody goes through roller-coasters of emotion, when good things or bad things happen. And of course, the mood someone has on any particular day is subject to events in their life. However, there are some people that seem to naturally have a smile, while others naturally have a scowl.
And you might even feel this way about yourself. You might think that life is good, or you might feel like you can never catch a break. And, of course, how you feel about yourself may or may not match up with how others see you.
So then the question becomes: can this aspect of your personality change? If life always gets you down, can you exercise some sort of emotional muscle to improve the amount of happiness you experience? If one bad thing after another happens, can a naturally cheerful person become a grump?
If change is possible, then what can we do to make that change happen for the better? What can we do in our everyday life to increase how happy we tend to be?
Related questions: Is happiness the most important purpose in life? Why do we put up with unhappiness? How does technology influence your emotions? What is the right amount of emotion?