Know What Makes You Happy

and What Makes You Sad

People feel worse if they are unhappy but have no idea why. Think
about your feelings and emotions. Then, even when you are unhappy,
you can take comfort in knowing the cause and how it can be changed.
IT IS NO mystery to Kim why she has felt so lost for many months. In a
short time she lost her husband to cancer and her mother to a stroke.
But she writes about her life daily in on online journal, in part to give
voice to her pain, in part to take special note of the good moments, and
in part because it just makes her feel better.
“This is a release for me. I need to rid myself of anger and pain—and
I can just put it out there and out of me,” Kim says.
Kim writes about everything from the challenge of getting the car
repaired to way she feels her identity changing. “You’re feeling all these
emotions, and nobody seems to understand you,” Kim says. “Unless
you’ve been there, you really can’t understand.”
Kim feels so much love in caring for her children, but at the same
time she aches for what she and her children have lost. “Things could
be worse,” she adds. “We all have tragedy in our lives. I’m charting the
good thoughts, the good moments. It’s a start, maybe a start toward a
good day.”
Those who are least likely to quickly overcome a temporary sense of
dissatisfaction
with life are those who cannot defi ne the sources of their feelings.
(Ramanaiah and Detwiler 1997)