Life-denying and Life-Affirming Gladness
Gladness is life-denying when it is a response to harming others. It is life-affirming when it is a response to whatever promotes and says, "Yes!" to life.
Gladness Suppressed, Addressed, Expressed (Directly and Indirectly)
Based on my experience and observations so far, it seems difficult to suppress gladness. It's difficult not to at least smile when we feel glad. However, there are times when we do well to hold our gladness in for a time and express it later.
Gladness felt in response to harming ourselves or others is disordered gladness. We do well to address it. In order to address it, we must first deepen our understanding of our spirit this particular disorder.
The ideal is to express our gladness directly, openly and honestly, as we feel it. However, there can be situations in which social norms bid us to express our gladness indirectly by sharing it with a trusted friend or confidante or writing it in our journal, for example.
Gladness, our spirit's response to pleasure, is a basic emotion commonly experienced. Even so, it's an emotion about which we still have much to learn.
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