While sipping at a double hammerhead made from their house blend at Grant’s Marketplace in South Park I started thinking about our emotions.
Anger:
Isn’t it interesting how the expression of certain human emotions are considered acceptable and others are not? The driven business person, manager, drill instructor come to mind as those might “get away” with showing anger. If they however were to show a tear many would judge them harshly for ‘losing control’.
Rather than moving beyond emotions, most of us keep bottled up those deemed inappropriate. We still feel them inside. We just force a different outward expression. I imagine any psychologist will tell us that this is not a healthy way of dealing with angst. I imagine the most evolved way would be not to feel the angst in the first place. Maybe that is the ultimate goal but far from what most of us can achieve at this time. That should not stop us from working on the process though.
Let us remember that emotions served their purpose in our early history but are less and less effective as our technology, knowledge and understanding grow. We certainly do not want to give up ‘joy’ at this time but that is one of the dilemmas. What will motivate us way out in our transhuman future? Will we have to add a “joy factor” to our brains that will reward us when we explore, create or otherwise engage in the behaviors we deem valuable?
BIP's travel and nature photo blog, formerly The Coffeehouse Philosopher 
Really enjoy your perspective here, I wish I could simply not feel angst in the first place!
Yes, and that probably takes practice for all of us. I am working on something I am going to call my “Human User’s Manual” and in it one thing I am going to talk about is remembering that some things just “Are the Way They Are”. If we can become conscious of that when facing angst we can catch ourselves in the act of feeling bad about the situation. Things that we perceive to be negative are going to happen to all of us but it is what we think about these situations that can make us feel bad. If it happens to be something that cannot be changed then dwelling upon the negative aspects will not improve the situation but actually make us feel worse. If we can sort of “let it go” and realize “it is what it is” then possibly we will have more energy to think about and plan for the things that we can improve. I only bring this up because it is something I work at in my life and of course writing about it helps me to remember it.
Kind regards,
Peaceman4tja3