Have you ever heard of the term, "Artificial Sadness"? I have. It came from a witty, downhearted friend who lost his chance of marching with his batchmates this graduation.
I was trying to console him from the weight he was carrying, considering at that time, his parents were still unaware of the situation. I told him that when people choose to be sad, they become sad and are comforted by this feeling that's why they tend to long for it when forlorn moments pass.
He then said that artificial sadness is blissful but real sadness is suicidal. Can I justify that his sadness is artificial or if his sadness was real then should he be left to linger on such depressing emotional state?
Emotions are triggered by thoughts, thoughts are triggered by events. If he had the opposite experience at that moment. Let's say he will be marching along with his batchmates this graduation. The event implies positive thoughts that lead to positive emotions such as happiness. Is he experiencing real happiness or is he just having artificial happiness?
In the first place what is the difference of artificial and real emotions if there are such? As to how I understood the implied definition of his use of such term, artificial emotions are those people choose to embrace for purpose of being comforted by them while real emotions are brought about by happenings in ones environment wherein one does not have the luxury of choosing whether to accept the emotions or not.
If that's the case then I should say, how can you ever identify emotions from being real to artificial if you can decide (meaning use your thougths) to bring about the emotions you have? Since emotions are brought about by thoughts and not directly by events then feelings are controlled and do not simply lie on the event as to whether one becomes happy or sad.
Even if the rest of the world does not agree with what I want in my life, I choose not to quit and I'm happy about it. It doesn't matter what happens, what matters is how I deal with them.
He may have lost a graduation march this school year (as the event), but if he did not look at that experience as devastating, frustrating and suicidal (as thoughts brought about by the event) and instead chose to be enthusiastic, challenged and perserverant then he wouldn't be SAD.
It's all in the mind! If I say I am happy, am I really happy? I am, if that's want I think and believe hard enough to feel, no matter what happens.
poor argument?! haha
* He's okay now. He'll be working in Visayas for a while before going back to school again.
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