[b]Balance is a feeling derived from being whole and complete; it's a sense of harmony. It is essential to maintaining quality in life and work.     

-Joshua Osenga



For a long time in my life, I had been told all the most terrible things about negative emotions, feelings and thoughts. 

I was schooled, not in the direct sense though, to believe that we were always to be happy only when we are focused on the positives while repressing the bad feelings. Much of these basic philosophies were tied around how we must have only positive thoughts, feelings and emotions before we can live life.

It was the positivity science. 

It became so loudly accepted that positivity became not only a trending hashtag but a movement. Maybe a religion, even. 

This new age dogma isn't a bad thing by the way. It had come from the need to help us find solution to our too much unhappiness. The problem was how it made happiness a harder nut to crack for some of us who had a very difficult time having just positive thoughts and maintaining it that way. 

It was in my quest to be happy, I mean truly happy with myself that I began the search for more. Because focusing on only the positive sides of life and trying so hard to pretend bad things weren't happening to me wasn't working for me. I needed something that showed me how to also deal with the other negative side of the coin. 

I have always been one that thrives on happiness. For me, happiness isn't a mantra. It is why we are here. 

Of what use is the awards, promotions, relationships and all the good rewards of hard work if it won't make us happy? I really don't know. Do you? I think happiness isn't a goal; it should be what the journey that leads to the goal is mostly about.

In my search for how to manage the frequent negative feelings that usually arise from the day to day lifestyle of any human, I moved towards nature and found more than I had envisaged. 

The universe operates in many cycles in order to maintain a balance here on earth. One of the most common is the water cycle. These cycles exists to show how nothing is missing in droughts as in rainfall. It actually depicts how nature had been set for these millions of years and still survives; because all aspects of the cycle matters. It is why we have seasons, and how each of these seasons represent a time when certain crops are cultivated, and the ground is also allowed to fallow without planting. 

The cycles are proves that there's a time for everything. 

If we had all rainy days without summer, we may perish with flood. And a summer without some rainy season after some time may leave us all heated up. 

In the same vein, negative feelings must be accompanied with positive ones for us to experience life in all aspects. That's why we die and are born. Yet the population of the world keep increasing. 

Imagine what would happen if no one ever dies yet we keep reproducing, or if no one reproduces but we're dying? 

Any one sided outlook to life is an imminent danger because there must be a counter effect for a balance to be achieved. 

I remember my physics class on battery experiments in order for us to lighten a bulb while in secondary school: how the fusing of the negative and positive terminals was what turned on the lights. This shows how both sides of the terminal is relevant to achieving the light bulb moment. 

It made me realize the more importance of experiencing my feelings, no matter how bad or good at that time, and then allowing them the passage to ebb away. 

I am science trained. I had my first deree in pure Chemistry before moving into psychology. So I can relate with these cycles well now. Even though I couldn't apply these laboratory lessons then to my life practically. 

For the full post, please click on link below:

https://joyiseki.com/why-balance-is-key-to-achieving-happiness/



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