[akk0]

As a piece of generic advice, I suggest turning one's search to feel better into a search for feelbetter. Notice that how we feel is not stable, but changes constantly from moment to moment. Notice that moments of feelbetter and moments of feelworse basically even out over the longterm. Notice that feelings are causal, that everything is a consequence of something prior according to consistent and comprehensible rules. Notice this on anjimmediate moment-to-moment here-and-now emperical basis.

Notice that attributing feelings here and now to decade old stories and narratives is spooky action at a distance.

[pinkmuffinere]

You might have a real point here, but it is very hard for me to understand what you’re saying. Why is “feelbetter” preferred to “feel better”?

Your second paragraph is parseable imo

[NathanaelRea]

What I take from it is that feelings are elusive, that you can never "reach" them. Your mind is constantly popping into existence feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Rather than trying to force yourself to "feel" a certain way, just notice how your mind reacts to the world or environment. The grasping or aversion of mind states leads you to spirals of thoughts or suffering.

[lanstin]

Using emotions as data rather than judging emotions as moral choices, clever.

[grvdrm]

Yes, was looking for the plain English version too.

[bonesss]

> attributing feelings here and now to decade old stories and narratives is spooky action at a distance.

Pattern recognition, recurrent excitation of particular stimulus chains, formative psychology, neuroplasticity, and extraordinary stimulus leading to categorical responses. There seems to be deep evolutionary roots and reasons for all those behaviours and their collective expression.

I was bitten on the face by a dog as a child. I attribute feelings around curious dogs now to that decades old experience. My nervous system seems to think it’s an obvious connection, not spooky.

Feel better is easier outside of fight/flight conditioning.