Yin and yang, light and dark, good and evil, water and fire, even sweet and savoury. Many important thinkers have obsessed over the idea of opposites for centuries.
This isn’t just a whimsical philosophical idea, our bodies and brains need to stay balanced, so every action in our body has its opposite reaction.
Happiness is no exception. Some people think of happiness as ‘an absence of sadness’, but if the philosophy of opposites has taught us anything… it’s that sadness isn’t absent but is instead a huge part of our happiness.
Everything contains its opposite. Without sadness, the feeling of happiness would be meaningless, non-existent, average. We only know happiness thanks to the times in our life when we did not have it. Without the moments that make us feel sad, we would have no comparisons to make us feel good, so those feelings of sadness are included in our happiness itself.
In our moments when we feel down or sad, we can take comfort in the knowledge that this moment hurts because of the happiness we have experienced before it, we can feel such sadness because we are capable of so much joy. We can take comfort knowing that when we’re back to being happy, these tough times will make that moment even sweeter.
I’m not suggesting we learn to love being sad, being sad sucks, but if we can start to see how our sadness is a core component of our happiness, it can help us dig that bit deeper when it feels the world isn’t going our way.
Hey, this isn’t a new idea, philosophers have been banging on about it forever but, to be fair, it’s a subject that can tie itself up in knots. So, in true Art of Brill style, let me bring you a new angle. All the way from 1970s France, I bring you the words of the great philosopher-cum-rock ‘n’ roller, Johnny Hallyday…
Give me hate so that I love love
Loneliness also so that I love people
For me to like silence, give me long speeches
And touch the misery to respect the money
So that I like to be healthy, overcome disease
Give me the night to love the day
Give me the day to love the night