[Still writing..]
It is natural for us, human beings, to frequently think about different areas in our lives where there are misery and pain. It is important to think about them because realizing the miseries is first of three important steps towards em betterment our lives. Ignoring that, unless we absolutely realize it is not possible to ameliorate, is not a solution as that leads to unhappiness for long time. The second step is to understand the imaginary situation in which that misery does not exist. This is not always rather easy. There can be multiple situations where that misery does not exist, but we may get other miseries which cause our overall pain to increase and we may find ourselves in worse overall situation. So it is important to understand which set of situations, if any, will remove the misery in a way where we can improve the overall situation. The third step, of course, is to analyze ways in which we can reach to that state where overall condition is improved through removal of misery. It is important to understand that when we say misery, we talk about a pain that our body and/or mind is undergoing at an instance. The relationship between physical pain and mental pain is quite close. Yet we can, most of the time, identify the reason of misery to be physical or mental(emotional). For example, source of hunger is physical even though it has significant impact on our mind. Similarly, lack of freedom and dignity is an emotional misery even though that may also have significant physical impact. E.g. in case of slaves and wage earners in various manufacturing institutions. Let us get back to this later.
It is natural for us, human beings, to frequently think about different areas in our lives where there are misery and pain. It is important to think about them because realizing the miseries is first of three important steps towards em betterment our lives. Ignoring that, unless we absolutely realize it is not possible to ameliorate, is not a solution as that leads to unhappiness for long time. The second step is to understand the imaginary situation in which that misery does not exist. This is not always rather easy. There can be multiple situations where that misery does not exist, but we may get other miseries which cause our overall pain to increase and we may find ourselves in worse overall situation. So it is important to understand which set of situations, if any, will remove the misery in a way where we can improve the overall situation. The third step, of course, is to analyze ways in which we can reach to that state where overall condition is improved through removal of misery. It is important to understand that when we say misery, we talk about a pain that our body and/or mind is undergoing at an instance. The relationship between physical pain and mental pain is quite close. Yet we can, most of the time, identify the reason of misery to be physical or mental(emotional). For example, source of hunger is physical even though it has significant impact on our mind. Similarly, lack of freedom and dignity is an emotional misery even though that may also have significant physical impact. E.g. in case of slaves and wage earners in various manufacturing institutions. Let us get back to this later.
Even though they cause one another, just as we discussed, emotional and physical miseries have different characteristics. Human beings can realize physical miseries much more readily than emotional miseries. Under usual circumstances our body responds quite promptly to discomfort. For example if I am seating on a chair that is not comfortable, we realize it quickly and then we change the chair or seat somewhere else or do something else to remove the discomfort. Our mind however acts lot slower in responding to uncomfortable situations. Of course some have more tolerance than others, but overall our mind tend to tolerant some amount of discomfort. For example, apart from some extreme cases, generally it takes human beings some time to find out whether two people can adjust well with each other. There are of course examples of love at first sight and hate at first sight. But they are quite rare compared to the usual cases where two people become friends and then slowly starts to develop a joyous or a hateful relationship. When it comes to understanding the future states where a misery is removed, we are much better in imagining about removal of physical miseries, barring our scientific limitations, than emotional miseries. For example, if I get a burn it is easy for me to understand the state where the burn is cured. But if a relationship is broken, it is mostly complicated to analyze the future states in which the emotional misery of the breakup is cured. When we try to analyzing different ways of reaching the possible better states from a state of misery similar kind of results resurface. It is generally much easier to figure out how to reach a future state where a physical misery is removed, as opposed to find a way to remove an emotional misery. One clear proof of that is the observation that study of cures for physical misery is a well established branch of science, whereas the study of cures for emotional misery, psychology, is, even today, largely a field of philosophy and science mixed.
One aspect of misery that needs good understanding is how do we realize it. One way to think about this is that any kind of misery is always realized by our mind. Let us talk about physical miseries first because that is easy to understand. Say I got a burn, The pain does not come so much from the chemical degeneration of the cells but due to the electrical signal that our neurones carry to our mind which then interprets them generating what we feel as physical pain. Now suppose someone lost his one finger in an accident. That causes a complex set of miseries. The misery from the pain of the wound. The utilitarian misery in the future rising from not being able to use that finger. The emotional misery rising from the realization that how the future could have been with the finger and how it is actually going to be without it. Also, the misery from the loss of aesthetic appeal of his hand. One can categorize the first two as physical memories and the last two as emotional miseries. But one thing that is common is that all of them are realized by the mind.
Physical and emotional misery, from the point of view of realization have one important distinction. Physical misery is more or less absolute in nature. For example, I am either hungry or not. The fact that some one else is more hungry than me does not make my misery of hunger go away. If I my finger is burning, my pain will not be ameliorated by hearing from someone that his finger is burning too. On the other hand, emotional memory has some relative aspect. For example, we realize lack of freedom when we see other people who are more free than us. We feel a sense of sadness when we don't have something that we deserve but at the same time many others have the same thing even if they don't deserve. Also, emotional misery may lessen with time without any change in any external or sensory factors. I don't believe in the statement that time heals all miseries, but we certainly learn to live being less hurt by our emotional miseries with time.
One distinction between physical and emotional misery lies in the way they originate. Physical misery always originate from our sensory organs and carried by neurons to our brain. Brain then creates the sensation of pain which we feel. On the other hand emotional misery has much more complex origin. It is created by our brain by complex analysis of information received by brain from memory and/or different sensory information. It consist of much complex analysis of quite a lot of information to give us a particular feeling. That is one of the reasons many times even we ourselves don't know why we feel sad or happy. Emotions are much more complex and abstract forms.
One distinction between physical and emotional misery lies in the way they originate. Physical misery always originate from our sensory organs and carried by neurons to our brain. Brain then creates the sensation of pain which we feel. On the other hand emotional misery has much more complex origin. It is created by our brain by complex analysis of information received by brain from memory and/or different sensory information. It consist of much complex analysis of quite a lot of information to give us a particular feeling. That is one of the reasons many times even we ourselves don't know why we feel sad or happy. Emotions are much more complex and abstract forms.
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