Pretty sure I've read and maybe even posted <a href=http://t.co/i868hMentR>this</a>before but it's worth repeating.  I know it's privileged and presumptuous but he does specifically acknowledge up front that he's not talking about everyone. 

I love its content and I love his writing style.

Found a lot of it rather uncomfortable because it's true.

I would guess that even non-busy people - and people who are, but actually aren't unhappy about it - reflexively claim to be, in unhappy tones, for the same reason we never otherwise claim to be happy:  the "Nobody Likes That Guy" problem - no one wants to be hated out of envy (or any other reason).  So, at the bottom, wanting to be liked.  

"What she had mistakenly assumed was her personality — driven, cranky, anxious and sad — turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment."  

Living in NY has kind of been getting to me for the last few months. I've been aware it's bothering me more than ever before and probably more than whatever "normal" may be.  Work has been bananas.  A spiral probably.

I'm going to try two experiments:

1- when asked how I am, reply, beaming, "Relaxed and happy!" whether its true or not and see what happens.  I can handle envy.  Shit ton of practice.  Bring it on.

2- spend just five mins a day doing nothing. Not wandering around the webs, not watching tv, not reading, not playing with the dog.  NOTHING. (Somewhere [a block away, most likely] KAB is keeling over of shock.)  I can count on one hand the number of times I've done this in my life -- don't even need a whole hand -- and EVERY TIME I fell asleep within 90 seconds.

Perhaps what I need more than these experiments is to get enough sleep.  Have made concerted effort over the past year or so w/ at best mixed "success".  Need to do better