17 Jan A science of feelings
It won't surprise any of you to read that here at The Happiness Institute we're very interested in feelings…and not just positive ones.
We are very interested in positive emotions such as happiness and joy, love and pride, but we're also very interested in the significant "negative" emotions such as anger and frustration, sadness and grief (to name but a few).
Which is why we thought we'd share with you this great article from the great Sir Ken Robinson. Although it's not directly about happiness it is, undoubtedly, relevant to any of us who're in pursuit of the good life and of understanding ourselves so we can be our best and achieve our potential.
It comes from the Huffington Post and begins like this…
Science is now discovering what artists have long understood: that nurturing our feelings is vital to the quality of our lives and that intellect and feeling are intimately connected. For the past 300 years the dominant view in Western culture has been that intelligence is mainly to do with certain sorts of logic and reason. This view evolved through the European Enlightenment and established science and a particular sort of rationalism as the main sources of intellectual authority. The achievements of this worldview have been spectacular, including the explosive growth of technologies and unprecedented advances in medicine, in communications and in our understanding of the physical universe.
Science has transformed human life in what is, in geological time, the beating of a wing. There have been many benefits. There's also been a high price. Among them is the exile of feeling; within science itself, in our culture in general and especially in education. For proponents of pure reason and objectivity, feelings are messy and misleading. Feelings have even had a bad press in psychology and psychiatry, the scientific disciplines that focus on human behavior and motivation. Significantly, the histories of both are mainly about negative feelings, emotional disorders and mental illness.
There's no doubt that there's a plentiful supply of all of these. One of the reasons is the chasm between thinking and feeling our culture has opened up. The social and economic costs are incalculable. At one end of the spectrum there are the huge numbers of people who are chronically disengaged at work or in school because they find it all pointless and unfulfilling. At the other are the jaw-dropping numbers who are critically addicted to alcohol, tobacco or drugs as a way of stimulating or suppressing their feelings.
It continues and you can read the full and original article HERE
I hope you enjoy this read and more so, I hope it helps you take another step in the journey towards happiness and living a good life : )