Family Affairs - Chapter 3

There are times when family affairs disappoint you. On page 79 ‘Outside the Box’, there are four suggestions on how to handle disappointment. What do you think of each suggestion? If you do not have issues that are family related (include the wider family, adoptive family, guardian), consider other disappointments in your life with other people who are supposedly close to you.

 

I agree with the first suggestion as it is a good way to remind yourself of self-worth. If you are feeling down and you wallow in self-pity, instead of raising your own spirits, that feeling would just stay with you wherever you go and whatever you do. However, if you bring yourself out of you 'down' pool as fast as you can, you will find that life seems a little disappointing, ut with a lot of nice things in it to compensate.

 

I also agree with the second suggestion as it one of the most useful suggestions in the box. Optimism sheds alot of light on the world which is, otherwise, a very dismal place. For example, if you are faced with the prospect of writing an essay and you absolutely hate writing anything longer than one-liners, instead of moaning about it and handing in a lousy piece of work, you could see it as a good way to improve on your essay-writing skills. Anyway, it's not like hating the subject so thoroughly is going to make the school change it's mind about setting them... Might as well suck it up and do it well...

 

I do not agree with the third suggestion as the length of the 'disappointment' feeling differs greatly with everything you face. For example, for Amy, failing in a test is next to nothing to her, but her boyfriend dumping her might be something that she takes months to get over. On the other hand, for Betty, she feels disappointed that she couldn't reach her target in the same test, but, when her boyfriend dumps her, she feels that it is not the end of the world and, if her boyfriend doesn't want to accept her, there is always someone out there who will.

 

I also do not agree with the fourth suggestion as finding a healthy way to express your emotions only relieves you of that 'disappointment' feeling for a little while. Once you stop whatever it is you are doing, the feelings all come rushing back and they have grown stronger than before. In the end, you will end up either keeping your nose so firmly fixed in your own little world that you lose all your friends, or you hurt yourself to totally forget the feeling, which also doesn't really work anyway. It just adds more physical pain to you emotionally hurt being.

 

I agree with the last suggestion as it is very similar to the second. Keeping yourself in full view of all that is goos in the world (which is actually a lot) is the best thing you can do if you are down.