This Emotional Life

I went from 0 to 60 in terms of blog posting, and I am sure I can’t keep up this pace but ah well. I have been in a documentary mode lately, and I had forgotten how much I like them. You get to learn in an hour and a half about someone else’s life, someone else’s struggles, or an issue in our world. I’ve watched Food, Inc. which I would highly recommend. It has changed the way that I look at what I eat. I also watched a PBS special: Digital Nation, which made me a little more cognizant of the technology I use everyday. I watched The Smartest Guys in the Room, which is about the fall of Enron. And last night I watched “This Emotional Life.” It is another PBS special. They explain it better than I can:

"Harvard psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Daniel Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness) hosts this three-part PBS series that explores the range of human emotions and how we can strive to become more positive in our day-to-day lives. The program examines the biological basis of happiness, the role of relationships and the ways in which we can cope with negative emotions.”
It was very well done. It started by going through the familial relationships, parent to child, child to parent. Then the friend relationship, one of the most delicate relationships. Finally, the romantic love. Although at times it was discouraging, especially in the marriage one, where it seems impossible to have a marriage that lasts, I think the most interesting part was understanding that as humans we need social relationships for survival. They are an innate need.

I think the biggest thing I learned from this documentary is to make conscious decisions and make conscious efforts when dealing with my social relationships. They are natural, but they don’t always stay that way. It takes work, it takes effort.