Monday, December 29, 2014

Self-pity

Almost all the sadness we experience in life comes from feeling sorry for ourselves.

12 comments:

  1. I would agree is you say "some of sadness".

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  2. I am my greatest advocate and I am my worst critic. Without stepping back and looking at ourselves from a different perspective, we can not see ourselves clearly. Feeling sorry for ourselves comes from lack of perspective.

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  3. You are so true!!
    Epsita@ epsita.blogspot.com

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  4. True it is, in the sense that sadness is merely a manifestation of our dissonance with other beings and processes not in our control.

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  5. It took me a bit, I was resisting the message, but after quite a bit of thought, I agree it is true.

    Good one.

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  6. When we grieve we cry for our loss and how it will impact your life. When we fail we cry for ourselves its not exactly self-pity. Self-pity is self-serving it is used as a reason you can't succeed or be happy. Sadness can turn into self-pity as it is a great excuse for not having to try. People move on from sadness.

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  7. It is certainly an interesting way to think about it, and I think it is probably more often true than I would have admitted before. Yes, when we grieve for a lost loved one, I think that is largely for our own loss - for the pain it causes us as individuals. But I have also certainly experienced deep sadness that has nothing to do with me directly. A news story of a child killed, for instance, can make me cry, without ever having met the child or their family. It does not directly effect me, but the sadness is present.

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  8. This is something I have struggled with all my life. A lot of sadness is genuinely based on feeling others’ pain. This is just my perspective but I had to learn that it is alright to hurt; the healing process only starts when you allow yourself to acknowledge and accept it. I agree that some pain is born out of self-pity but in many cases it is more than justified.

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  9. Ps: as always you have us questioning our concept of ‘self’ – you are indeed a true philosopher

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  10. I agree with this aphorism. It's also a difficult thing to surpass self pity.

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  11. This is so true and I always have to pick myself up when I start to have a self-pity party! No joy in self-pity, that’s for sure.

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