We can be stubborn in our unhappiness. It's almost like we've decided that our unhappiness must follow certain rules and timetables.
If we've been slighted, if we've been hurt, if we've had an argument with someone, if we wake up in the wrong side of the bed, etc. etc. we cling to our negative emotions; and we often use them to punish someone else.
"I'm not speaking to him until he apologizes. Oh, what he just said was really funny, but I'm not going to laugh. I won't even smile. I'll show him."
We've even been taught that unhappiness is a sign of respect.
For example, many cultures organize mourning. There's rules about the time spent, the appropriate clothes to wear, the hair tearing, and the unhappiness that one has to display when someone dies.
We've institutionalized unhappiness, even turned it into a virtue, and the danger of that is twofold:
1. See the R.W.E. quote above
2. We lose our ability to feel what's really going on in our hearts.
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