Resisting The Pressure Of Happiness Or “happycracy “

Positive psychology arrived in the 90’s together with the work of psychologist Martin Seligman. He defined it as “the scientific study of what makes life worth living.” Since then, life coaches, motivational speakers, and self-help books have basically forced you to be happy. The term for this “happiness dictatorship” is called the happiness pressure, or “happycracy”. Today we will talk about the psychological implications of getting the happiness pressure on you.

Is it wrong to have a bad day? Am I sick because I’m in a bad mood sometimes? Does it mean that I get upset because things are not going my way that I need professional help to cope with life? The answer is a resounding “no”.

Sickness of normal emotions actually leads to an unhappiness epidemic. If you feel that your happiness does not measure up to the conventional definition, you will ironically feel even more unhappy.

What is the happiness pressure or “happycracy”?

What is happiness? Is the meaning universal? Can someone teach you to be happy or give you the tools to be happy? The industry behind positive psychology would say “yes”. If that were true, however, the incidence of depressive disorders and suicide rates would not rise so rapidly.

The message of happycracy is that if you are not happy, it is your fault. It is due to your way of thinking and your coping skills in different situations, as well as your inability to cope with negative emotions. After all, today you have an entire industry available to help you be happy. Life coaches, self-help books, stickers for your mirror to remind you to smile while brushing your teeth… Happiness is a business, in every sense of the word.

It seems that this commitment can be traced back to James Lange’s theory of emotions. It claims, erroneously, that emotions come from facial expressions. It’s like saying “I’m sad because I’m crying instead of saying ‘I’m crying because I’m sad.

So even if the world goes to hell, do I just have to smile to be happy again? Or if I go through a difficult period of life, will a message on a cup make everything better?

It seems ridiculous, but the number of people devouring these messages is staggering. The problem is that the consequences of “positive” thinking are often very negative. The first is complete and absolute intolerance to discomfort, no matter how minimal.

What are the consequences of forced happiness?

As we just mentioned, people today have a fairly low tolerance for discomfort, both their own and others’. We do not like to feel sad because it makes us feel weak. How often have you said (or heard someone say) to someone who is crying; “But do not cry!” How often have you said; “I do not want to cry” when your body actually asks you to? Emotions are adaptable, they have a meaning. Crying is sometimes very necessary and healthy.

Trying to suppress emotions can make you feel worse than you did at first. It can even cause you to develop serious emotional disorders. Here are some of the consequences:

Guilt

A sense of guilt and a variable level of pressure. Stress because the pressure of happiness or “happycracy” forces you to feel good right now, because life is wonderful and if you cry, you throw it away. And guilt, not just because you feel bad at a specific time, but also because you are not doing what you need to feel better.

You may need to feel sad for a week, but that’s too much for society. Your feelings are not normal. Instead, you exaggerate and put things off. Some may even think that you like to feel depressed. The happiness pressure or “happycracy” makes you a less empathetic person, and able to blame other people for their misfortune. Is there anything less human than that?

This in turn can cause:

Loneliness and a lack of social support

This is one of those rare times when negative things you think others think about you are actually true. You feel that the people around you cannot accept your emotional state. And maybe they really can not tolerate it, so they distance themselves. This happens because you, just like you can not accept your own sadness and discomfort, also do not know how to react to other people.

We are social beings. The reality is that a good social network is often the key to recovering from a difficult period or from a bad experience. It makes you feel loved, validated and accepted. Without it, things get complicated. Your problems seem bigger and you are more stressed and anxious.

Resisting the pressure of happiness or “happycracy”: Respect your feelings and those of others

Personally, I’m more of a Grinch than a Santa Claus. To me, there is nothing more genuine, sincere, and sane than accepting sadness and anger. It is normal to have bad days, no matter how resilient you are. Sometimes life gives you challenges that you do not feel like turning into something positive. Difficult circumstances that overwhelm you with no easy way out.

Having a bad day and feeling sad does not make you a bad person. It makes you a real person. Be wary of people who are always happy, because eternal well-being does not exist. Perhaps the coping strategy is their avoidance, which is much less healthy and constructive than experiencing and accepting negative emotions.

Emotions, both positive and negative, have a purpose. In other words, they are necessary. Covering them all the time only makes things worse.

Respecting your feelings and the feelings of others, normalizing them, and encouraging them to express emotions not only make you more human. It encourages a healthy and respectful transition to a more positive emotional state. One without obligations, orders or a timeline. Remember that you are so much more than one negative emotion.