Home→Forums→Tough Times→The only thing that gives value/worth to my life
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March 21, 2017 at 8:15 am #140943MattParticipant
I would like to begin by saying that my chemical induced good feelings (good moods) of happiness, joy, beauty, love, inspiration, drive, etc. are the only experiences that give value to my life and composing and they are the only things that make my entire life and my composing worth living for. This is because the experience of any other form of value/worth in my life is a dead, lifeless, mechanical experience without these good feelings.
It is, therefore, not any real value/worth in my life then and my good feelings are the only experiences that give my life real value/worth due to the profoundly spiritual and beautiful life-filling nature of these experiences. I don’t think it is my way of thinking and my attitude that is projecting value upon these good feelings and claiming they are the only experiences that give real value/worth to my life.
This is because there is a big difference between our personal definitions and our experiences. If you personally define a version of sight when you are blind or a version of hearing when you are deaf, then that would not be any real sight or hearing. It would be a dead, lifeless, mechanical experience of sight and hearing since it would not be any real experience of sight and hearing.
I need a spiritually profound and beautiful life-filling experience to give real value/worth to my life and personally defining one without my good feelings does not give me that experience. It is like thinking I can see when I am blind or hearing when I am deaf. It just doesn’t work. Therefore, I need my good feelings at all times and I find that quite unfortunate since there are a number of factors that can take these good feelings away from me.
That leaves me at a great disadvantage and I am wondering if there really is a way to achieve an experience that is a real spiritually profound and beautiful life-filling experience (the opposite of a dead, lifeless, mechanical experience) without my good feelings. If there is no way to achieve such an experience, then it is a waste of my time then to try and help me find value/worth in my life without these good feelings.
The only thing that can be done is to try and regain my good feelings to regain the value, worth, beauty, joy, happiness, inspiration, drive, etc. back into my life again. But if I cannot regain these good feelings back to me within a reasonable time frame, then I am officially done here. I am finished.
My life and my composing needs to be worth living for and my good feelings are an absolute necessary condition to make that happen. I plan on fully dedicating my time and my life to composing like how any hardcore 10,000 hour rule musician would and I plan on becoming a great composer since that is my dream. But my good feelings are the only things that can make that happen.
March 21, 2017 at 9:31 am #140967AnonymousGuestDear Matt:
Are you asking a question somewhere in your post? If so, can you state the question (or questions) as clearly as possible?
anita
March 21, 2017 at 9:44 am #140973MattParticipantI said I needed a beautiful life-filling experience (the opposite of a dead, lifeless, mechanical experience) to give real value/worth to my life. Currently, my good feelings are the only things that give me that experience and I was wondering if there was a way to achieve that experience without my good feelings. Remember, there is a big difference between our personal definitions and our experiences as I stated in my post. Therefore, it must truly be a beautiful life-filling experience for me and not just a matter of personal definitions.
March 21, 2017 at 10:39 am #140991AnonymousGuestDear Matt:
Your question, best I can understand, is: Is there a way to achieve an ALIVE subjective experience of life without experiencing good feelings (pleasure, desire, drive, inspiration, love)?
If this is your question, then my answer is NO.
Thing is, biologically, we human animals are driven above all else to survive, whatever it takes, not to be happy. As long as fear drives us, we are motivated to protect ourselves, to withdraw, contract.
It is impossible to always feel good, as you well know. It is possible to feel more and more of these good feelings as you heal from anxiety (ongoing fear when there is no imminent or present danger).
anita
March 21, 2017 at 10:42 am #140993MattParticipantBad feelings are worse than a lifeless mechanical state. The experience of bad feelings is not a beautiful life-filling experience for me. When I have no feelings at all, then I would be having a lifeless mechanical experience. So, without my good feelings, then the experience I would be having would either be a lifeless mechanical one or an experience that is worse than that.It is not my perspective. This is what the experience truly is for me because I said before that there is a big difference between our perspectives (personal definitions) and what it is we are truly experiencing. Therefore, I was wondering if there was a way I could have a beautiful life-filling experience that is real. We can toss perspective out of the window because it is completely irrelevant here. What needs to be focused on here is the actual experience itself.
March 21, 2017 at 10:50 am #140995AnonymousGuestDear Matt:
I don’t understand what you mean by “personal definitions” in this context. Can you give me something specific, an example, perhaps?
anita
March 21, 2017 at 11:01 am #140997MattParticipantThat still all goes back to what I said before:
“If you personally define a version of sight when you are blind or a version of hearing when you are deaf, then that would not be any real sight or hearing. It would be a dead, lifeless, mechanical experience of sight and hearing since it would not be any real experience of sight and hearing.”
Therefore, if I was experiencing an unpleasant feeling such as depression or misery and I thought that it was a beautiful life-filled experience for me, it wouldn’t be. The experience itself is still horrible regardless of how I think about it.
March 21, 2017 at 11:22 am #141001AnonymousGuestDear Matt:
By “personal definition”/ “perspectives” then, you mean what I call make-believe thinking, convenient thinking, delusional thinking, wishful thinking- and if so, I agree- delusional thinking does not change real experience. This is why I am a big fan, a huge fan, of fitting our thinking (personal definitions, perspectives) to reality. The more congruent one’s brain is with reality, the better your real experience.
When you experience misery and depression, and your thinking about your experience does not match reality, then your experience will remain, predominantly the same. On the other hand, if your thinking regarding your misery is congruent with reality, then you have hope to heal from what ails you and to experience more and more peace of mind, contentment, and at times, that joy and drive and other good feelings you mentioned.
anita
March 21, 2017 at 11:45 am #141011MattParticipantMany people would say that having a beautiful life-filling experience, having a mechanical, dead, lifeless experience, and having a horrible experience are merely value judgments. I do not agree that they are. I think they are actual experiences like sight and hearing. Sight and hearing are not value judgments. They are actual experiences that can be taken away from you such as if you became blind or deaf. In that same sense, any beautiful life-filling experience in your life can be taken away from you since that is an actual experience like sight and hearing. That experience would be our good feelings.
Good value/worth and bad value are not judgments either. They are synonymous with our good (pleasant) feelings and our bad (unpleasant) feelings. Having good feelings in your life is always a beautiful life-filling experience and will always bring good value/worth to your life, having no feelings at all would always be a dead mechanical experience and will always bring no value to your life, while having bad feelings will always be a horrible experience that will always bring bad value to your life.
March 21, 2017 at 12:12 pm #141019AnonymousGuestDear Matt:
I agree with you then.
Good feelings can be taken away from a person, like sight can and hearing. Good feelings are taken away from people by other people, mostly, by abuse and harm, aggression, which are common, especially in childhood. Those good feelings are taken away and anxiety, depression set in where once were those good feelings.
I am in the process of getting back some of those good feelings following decades of that deadness on one hand or the distress on the other, that I experienced. What a journey this is.
anita
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