It’s hard for manly men to cry. The only times I cry is during sports actually….. not when my team loses to a last second miracle 3 ball, but when I see inspirational stories of people who’ve overcome disability to play again. I feel better afterwards, it’s rejuvenating! Just don’t tell anybody.

You’re right. Writing is cathartic!

Rob #5 – I have to admit you make an excellent point and I can see how faith could work in the way you’ve described. My personal experience however is much different.

My relationship w/G-d was helped me, maybe for the first time in my life, to be much more present. It has also given me more strength to believe that things pass.

That’s been my experience anyway.

Justin, thanks for airing this out. You are a very bright young man (I happen to know this personally) and you’ll figure it out.

My experience is that writing about it and sharing is the first step in that process. Bravo!

At this point, I’ve gotten sick of most of the social edicts around happiness. It’s kind of freeing.

If I feel down, I don’t try to buy my way out of it. I just do something comforting, like curl up on the couch and watch TV or read. I accept that, that day, I probably won’t be very happy.

Of course, if the unhappiness is severe or goes on too long, then I have to examine it and figure out how to cope.

But if we could all just accept that there’s a difference between sad and not-happy… I think a lot of time, energy, sanity and money would be saved.

Paradoxically, being able to admit to yourself that you are not entirely happy often generates the insights you need to becomehappy. But not making happiness the goal, it becomes easier to achieve happiness. It is by giving up your life that you are able to find it.

Rob

I go home and say, I want a new job, but just think about how many people out there have no jobs…

So, I started to do something to fix the situation, A friend of mine came to me and asked him to help with his startup company, doing internet marketing. Its something I normally enjoy, and think it is a great opportunity. However, It has added a lot of stress to my life right now and only made things harder. Working full time, then coming home and working even more appears to simply be to much for me. Another large part of my dilemma is confidence and training. I went to college and have my degree in Marketing, I trained for 6 months with a marketing agency as an intern. I have now been doing marketing for Power Sports for about a year. All great experience, but i have never really been an apprentice, never been a marketing assistant, never really learned marketing and internet marketing on the job. Everything I do daily right now, is done because that is all I know, I dont have anyone for guidance, and at this early stage in my career, it is something I miss greatly. Do I need it? I dont know, would it be a nice cushion? Yes!

If this post is a bit off subject, it is at the least my way of helping deal with the troubling aspects of life, for me, right now.

I wonder if the “I should be happy all the time, but I’m not, so something is wrong with me” mentality is uniquely American. Maybe it’s no accident that the word that captures being kind of blue/lethargic is French: “Ennui.”

I don’t mean to imply Europeans have all of the answers, but it does seem like Americans put a lot of emphasis on being trouble-free, when clearly that’s an impossible goal.

Also, I’m sure you know that one of the primary tenets of Buddhism is “Life is suffering.” So if you accept that, maybe you can accept feeling down, and then go from there.