I’m having a pity party; care to join?
I think there’s value in feeling sorry for yourself.
Right now I’m feeling sorry for myself for a variety of things, which has placed me into a mindset where I want to do the following, in exactly this order:
- Crawl up in a ball with a blanket;
- Turn on the TV to some History/BIO/Science channel and focus on whatever special they’ve got.
I feel like a lot of bloggers spend a lot of their time advocating using every moment that you have to do something – start a business, find a job, change your life – but sitting on your duff and being depressed? There simply isn’t time! Turn that frown upside down! And so on. Simply put, the American lifestyle does not want to permit you to be sad.
People are like this partly for selfish reasons. Emotions are contagious, so if you’re unhappy, you’ll tend to make others unhappy when they’re around you. Hence, they want to make you happy so they can feel happy. Feeling sorry for yourself, though, to me is like grieving: it happens. It’s a natural part of life. You eventually move on and move forward. People pushing you to “get happy” need to “get fucked” because they’ve been in the same boat of self-pity before.
If you’re feeling sorry for yourself, wallow in it; it’ll get better. If you’ve got a friend or family member in the same condition, support them and help them work through it. There’s no harm in indulging in self-pity every once in a while.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:12 pm
I think that was a very reasonable blog piece. I hope you feel better soon, when you are ready. Until then, enjoy the science stuff.
June 22nd, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Jon, I actually was reading a book called Sloth. It’s a part of a book series, for some reason my dad had it over at his apartment. I feel that you’re getting overstressed and worked up about not currently being as active as you’d like. There are ways to become more active, join an interest group, go out to a park and see what’s around in the city, look up different conferences, write or even read research, a variety of things. However, as the book stated, what is ultimately going to make you happy is what DOES make you happy. If you enjoy playing video games, then play video games. If you enjoy watching sports while drinking a beer and taking it easy, then you should. Life is short – and one of the most important things to remember is to ENJOY it while it lasts by being happy. A lot of people have these jobs, or multiple jobs, where they work all the time (take my dad for example) but do you think they are truly happy doing this?
June 22nd, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Reading this made a small part of me feel better, simply because I’ve been there. Its safe to say most of us have been there and will continue to eventually end up there, but for some reason when you are the one in a rut you feel so alone and unsuccessful. Next time I am feeling this way, I will probably remember this post and while I have a feeling it won’t cheer me up completely I’m sure it will lighten the mood a bit, thanks.