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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations #820259 added June 19, 2014 at 8:28pm
Restrictions: None
Wodehouse/WTMR Entry #3 - Happy People
ACTIVITY: "a very Wodehouse challenge" 
GROUP AFFILIATION: "Welcome To My Reality Forum"
PROMPT: Do you consider yourself to be a happy person, generally speaking? Why or why not?
I am most definitely a happy person. I would consider myself a very happy person both compared to most other people and independently of other people. I make that distinction because I think that with concepts like these, it's important to look at yourself both in terms of the world around you and in terms of the world within you. On both counts, I think my default setting is "happy" more than anything else.
I definitely don't suffer from any kind of clinical emotional disorder. Except for the occasional temporary bouts of depression related to specific situations (being laid off, losing a loved one, etc.), I haven't been diagnosed with any kind of mood or personality disorder that leaves me with unhealthy emotional issues. Maybe that's not exactly a ringing endorsement that I can use to say I'm a happy person, but I think it's important to at least prove the negative. I'm definitely not unhappy... so that's something, right?
Next, we have to consider my general outlook on life. On the sliding scale of optimism/pessimism, I'm probably optimistic about 80% of the time, and pessimistic 20% of the time. Heck, I wouldn't even call it pessimistic as much as I would call it realistic. But in the vast majority of situations I find myself in, I have an overwhelmingly positive reaction to most things. The glass isn't half-empty, it's half-full. The guy who cuts my hair is late to our appointment, but that just means I can read a few more pages of my book. I took my car in for an oil change and found out I need an extra $200 in repair work done; thank goodness it wasn't $500! Pessimism just isn't in my nature, for the most part. Even when we're talking serious struggles (unemployment, being broke, loss of a loved one, etc.) I'm very much a silver lining, "well, it could have been worse" kind of guy when it comes to unanticipated problems.
So there's really no physiological or mental reason why happiness is a barrier to me, and those situations and frustrations that pop up in our daily lives aren't really things that bother me. I know some people who feel like their whole day is ruined if someone is late to an appointment or if an expected complication arises... but I usually find a reason not to let it bother me that much.
The last reason why I consider myself a happy person is because I tend to let go of negative emotions quickly. Anger, jealousy, suspicion, bitterness, offense... these are all emotions that do, admittedly, rise up quickly in me. But they also dissipate just as quickly. It's rare for me to hold onto a negative emotion for more than a couple hours, and even rarer that it carries over into the following day after I've gone to bed. For the most part, negativity tends to pass through me without lingering around too long.
Ultimately, it's a combination of all these things that lead me to consider myself a happy person. I have no medical impediment to being happy, I have a rather optimistic view of life in general, and those times where I am unhappy don't tend to last very long. The way I tend to see things is that life only gives you a finite amount of time to experience it, so what's the point of wasting any more of that time than necessary being unhappy? And if you are unhappy, what's the point in maintaining it rather than trying to overcome it as soon as possible?
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