X "I think we can compare pessimists to left-handed people: we can teach a left-handed child to use his right hand, but despite that he will always be left-handed – it is his nature and it can’t be changed. But we can see one positive aspect emerging from this fact: when we teach a left-handed child to use his right hand, he will have an advantage as compared to the right-handed children – he will know how to use and control both of his hands, so he will have a skill that the right-handed won’t have. Similarly I believe that pessimistic people who gain the learned optimism skills will have an advantage in comparison with optimistic people who won’t further develop their optimistic personality trait; they will see both sides of the world, not just the optimistic one." X "If we track the history of dualism between body and mind up to the time where capitalism makes our body works like machine, we can raise the question: where is the space for our emotions? It might be very disappointed and even frustrating, that very often there is not such a space. Exaggerated emphasis on achievement, output and performance might cause alienation of my own feelings. In the rush to fulfil all claims of society I might very easily over-look how do I really feel. We might be even afraid of expressing our emotions fully because it could be against cultural norms, believes or standards. Not to express the anger as reaction of dissatisfaction of our personal state, life etc., might cause emotional blocks. (Solomon 2007: 201)" X "If we choose an anthropological point of view we will get a very interesting result. Then the theory says that emotions should be different in different cultures and in different languages. And we know that this makes no sense. The only difference is how people can handle the emotions in different cultures but the emotions are the same the difference is in the people's will and that is based on the upbringing." "After reading the Michelle Rosaldo’s article about the Ilongot people, who live on the Philippines (Rosaldo, 1983: 205), I felt really confused. To be honest, I didn’t understand the whole headhunting concept and its connection with the shame or the absence of the shame in this tribe. […] Now, I got a bit lost in my own thoughts, however I think I understand the Rosaldo‘s article a little bit more than I did at the beginning." X “According to the Michael James, who spent more than eight years studying the original Tamil writings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, our natural state is to be happy. Our desire for happiness is our desire for our natural state. Consciously or unconsciously, we are all seeking what is natural for us. For example, when we have a headache, why do we wish to be free of it? Because a headache is not natural to us, when we experience one, we desire to be free of it. The same is the case with all other things that are not natural to us. We cannot feel entirely comfortable or happy with anything that is not truly natural to us. That is why we never feel perfectly happy, in spite of all the material, mental and emotional pleasures that we may be enjoying. All such pleasures come and go, and hence they are not natural to us. ( James, 2012)” “I think that this last thought is true. No man is born naturally unhappy, but his luck affects his deeds. Can happiness be learned? I do not know, but certainly can be influenced. One can not always have everything. Wealth, fame, health, happy family, an ideal partner. And even if all this was, it can never be for long. But I guess it does not matter. Being happy is a state of mind. It is necessary to set priorities, to set out your goals and go for those. And enjoy the happiness piece by piece. Do not wait for some great happiness that might ever come.” X “Another point that I disagree with is connected to the fact that Seligman makes it sound very easy to be happy, according to the steps that he describes in the text, literally anyone can become a happier person. It almost sounds like we are refusing to be happier, because it is entirely our choice. It seems to me that Seligman is forgetting some very important factors that impact happiness: life circumstance, family history and genetics. In my opinion, to come to a person who has been through very difficult situations (for example a person that was neglected and mistreated as a child) and to tell him "find your personal strength and use them in your everyday life so you can be happy" is practically being insensitive and radically naive.” X “I think that in our culture nowadays it is thought, that happiness strongly depends on money, beauty, love life, shape of body and generally on our social class. To prove my thought, I tried to look for some definitions or advices how to be happy. I found plenty of these advices mainly in internet magazines for women. Women are evidently main targets of "happiness business". In an article called Six things, that you might not know about happiness, author describes six ways, how living better, happier life is possible. She bases these six points on "scientific researches about happiness". Shortly, in this article is said that people are provably happier when they have high salary, they meditate at least twenty minutes a day, when they are married and both husband and wife are in a good shape. Furthermore, people are happier when they get older and when they do not have any social media account, because these accounts, as scientists say, cause deprivation and sadness. It is scientifically proven that people who are happy need to know or at least thing, that they are way more happy than people in their surroundings.” X “I think that people in poor states are more happier than people in the west world. The reason for it is simple. People in Asia, Africa or South America doesn´t need to have a television, a new computer or a smart phoone. They are happy with everything what they have. The most importatnt thing for them is good weather for their field, succesful hunt and their family. On the other hand people in the west world need a lot of more thing for being happy. It is affected by their way of life. People occur in big pressure thank´s their society. They want to feel comofortable with their neighborhood. So they need to behave like „normal“ person – they need to have a good car, pretty hause, nice clothes and a lot of more another modern technologies. The standart is in these states very high, so there is a big probability, that they will have a lot of more problems to be happy, then people in South America or Africa.” “it is reasonable to suppose that there is selectivity in social relationships not only in terms of the social structures of class, education, etc., but also in bringing together persons with similar systems of affect. [ Turner 2004: 11 ] So we can say that behavior of every person is showing which way in life he will go. Manifestation of emotions can say to us from which society they are coming from. Emotions are part of social behaviour and emotions intelligence is in society very important. So I can say that emotions are very important part of every person, because the way in which someone is showing them in public can to others say a lot of things about that person.” “Nobody can say that he can describe emotions really well. Because it is very hard to describe them with totally accurancy. A lot of authors was trying to do it. But my opinion is, that every of them described just one part of their substance. Mr. Solomon was trying to use culture for saying how emotions are influenced. But I think, that it is not the only thing by which they are influenced. Another important thing for me is character of every person and the surroundings in which is that person growing up. Because society is saying which behaviour is normal and which is not.” X “First of all it's appear in the text from passions to emotions that emotions, in the history has always been in relation with psychology, unlike passions or affection, are belong to soul, conscience, or religion, which is not something clearly scientific. In this case, emotions, have a sicentific side. It also said that the terms emotions is a recent words, that exist only for two hundred years. So we are able to ask ourselves why emotions are so “young”? Why we decide to talk about emotions?” “According to Darwin, emotions are limited phenomenon, existing because of the evolution. Emotions that we “use” today have been selected because of their adaptativ function. So, for him it is something present since the beginning of Human life, but something that change depending to how the emotional behavior was useful for survive, and how they suit with the environment. It also said that emotions are present in every culture and that there is a emotional communication. Therefor, on that point we can saw that there is the mix between culture and biological part. Indeed, emotions were present all the time they just change in a way to get better in the social environment.”