How can such beautiful things be so depressing?

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

is there a reason for the increasing sense of foreboding and chest constrictions we get sometimes when we see a place for the very first time even though it maybe so breath taking?
Has anyone else experienced that? or is it that another unpleasant thought crosses the mind at the same time and it mars what should be a euphoric feeling?

**CosmicPathos** · 10-13-2012

I dont see what's wrong with depressing/melancholy feeling, as long as it is not persistent and is not affecting functions of life. I find that melancholy is quite beautiful, lets one to be really introspective and evaluate his/her position in the grand scheme of cosmos. Beautiful things always bring with it the awe and the fear of loosing em, and I guess that makes it depressing.

But I guess then it depends on one's peronality type. I am quite "loner" type so I guess I find it normal that way? Have to say, have not found many "loner" type sisters.

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

It isn't what I meant really.. I mean almost as if you'd been there before and it is attached to something bad even though you'd never seen it before and it is actually quite beautiful.. like deja vue but not really so because it doesn't come with familiarity of the place or that it happened just that it made you feel instantly bad and constricted. Like you just want to get out of there or in this case not look at it.

**CosmicPathos** · 10-13-2012

No idea really, lol.

edit: re-read what you wrote. No, I dont get flashbacks of bad deja vus or ugly memories from past by just seeing beautiful sights. I just focus on what makes them beautiful and how they fit into my beautiful life.

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

That's cool.. I am probably reading too much into it.. probably down about something else and I just fixated it in the stupid photo

**CosmicPathos** · 10-13-2012

what does the photo remind you of if its not too personal?

Are the bad flashbacks voluntary or involuntary?

I do voluntarily drift into the past but then it is a self-induced hurt, so the best way is to avoid it. But if you are having involuntary flashbacks, I guess trying to untie the knots from the past might help?

I was missing childhood friend. Lo and behold, I called him back home, and I even got to talk to his mom. Friend wanted me to help her as she has become really anxious and a bit ocd etc etc. Felt good to visit the past and to listen to her, she talked to me as if I am her son.

Maybe you can try something like that by mending the destroyed bridges.

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

It is the stair well it upsets me.. it doesn't remind me of anything.. but it gave me the same feeling I had driving by this christian cemetery in Egypt, it had ugly birds flying about, even though it looked really pretty, it was so well groomed and well kept and very architectural probably one of the best looking cemeteries I'd ever seen... It didn't have any stairs like that but it just made me so ill at ease.

**CosmicPathos** · 10-13-2012

Well ... cemeteries can be scary if you think about what hides beneath em, no wonder you felt ill at ease. kher iA.

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

Yeah when I was a little girl they carried alot of secrets and silence but I have seen more dead bodies than I care to admit and should be over it by now..
Hopefully I'll feel better in the morning in shaa Allah.. Jazaka Allah khyran
one thing about Egyptian cemeteries though whether the Muslim or Christian ones they're very odd, really very odd.. they're like houses and the latter are like a gathering places for jinn .. just empty and at the same time full of things I'd rather not see if they look anything like the feeling they give off then one shouldn't wish for death!

**joesixpack** · 10-13-2012

There are nightmares i had as a child, and though they were a confusing jumble of images they were terrifying. When I have tried to describe them to people they sound almost comical in their banality, yet recalling them makes my hair stand up on end. I wonder if there is some element in your feelings about certain images that are similar?

Let me tell you about my nightmare and some of the things that bring it to mind. See if there's some element that is familiar about it. The first time I had the nightmare I was about 10 or 11 yeas old. My family and I were in a cabin in the mountains and I think I must have woken up the entire campground when I screamed. My nightmare, at least what I can remember of it, consisted of large stone and iron balls, like cannon balls or bowling balls falling from the sky and landing on very delicate needles sticking up from the ground. They would, of course, crush the tiny needles and they would make a deafening noise when they struck the ground. Now the thing that stuck in my mind about this nightmare was the difference in scale of the two objects. The ball was massive and large, the needles were tiny and delicate. I had similar nightmares two more times, but the details are lost. The similarity with the first was that same contrast of sizes. Just thinking about this aspect of it actually gives me a feeling of queasiness. Many years later, I was reading a geology text book and there was a passage describing the way that earth scientists categorized rock sizes. The book explained that they used a scale with boulders on one end and it progressed all the way down to the finest silt at the other end. That passage brought the sense of dread and terror back for a second and I almost slammed the book shut. It passed, but even now, 20 years later, and 40 years after that first nightmare , I can still feel a twinge of that same horror I felt as a kid. It sounds as if the feeling you describe is very much the same as what I've felt. It is such an overwhelming sense of dread.

**Hulk** · 10-13-2012

The world has been around a long time and has had a long history. Anywhere we walk may have had a significant event that happened at one point, I think it's all the more reason we should never walk arrogantly wherever we go. Every bit of space is a witness, which is why some of us change spots after a fard prayer to do sunnah prayer, because every spot will be a witness to our prayer. Perhaps sis your heart perceives certain places differently than others as it is a bit more sensitive to the place's history.

**ardianto** · 10-13-2012

Originally Posted by شَادِنُ

one thing about Egyptian cemeteries though whether the Muslim or Christian ones they're very odd, really very odd.. they're like houses

egyptcityofthedeadelarafa 34051 600x450 1 - How can such beautiful things be so depressing?

Do you mean Egyptian cemetery like this?

**glo** · 10-13-2012

Originally Posted by شَادِنُ

is there a reason for the increasing sense of foreboding and chest constrictions we get sometimes when we see a place for the very first time even though it maybe so breath taking?
Has anyone else experienced that? or is it that another unpleasant thought crosses the mind at the same time and it mars what should be a euphoric feeling?

It's that kind of feeling which makes some people believe in reincarnation and previous lives - the sense that a place you have never knowingly been to seems strangely familiar.

I have never felt it myself.
Perhaps it's something to do with how our brain/memory connects things? A bit like deja-vu?

**Snowflake** · 10-13-2012

Could that feeling arise from the way the stairwell curves and you can't really see what's beyond that point? A bit like how in real life we don't know what's round the corner and if we really ponder upon this deeply it can be quite unnerving. We've all seen people who've planned to do this and that in life and the next thing you know they're dead. Perhaps the image serves as a reminder of this reality?

Or that feeling of having been in some place before. I have experienced this. Or a feeling of knowing people I've never met before. Since we don't believe in reincarnation, the only explanation that I can think of is, that as the soul leaves the body when we're sleeping, we've probably visited those places/people in spirit before. Allah alam. Life is a mystery.

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

Originally Posted by ardianto

Do you mean Egyptian cemetery like this?

somewhat but what I really mean is this
070314103 1 - How can such beautiful things be so depressing?

**جوري** · 10-13-2012

Originally Posted by Snowflake

that as the soul leaves the body when we're sleeping

That in fact is the Islamic answer to deja vue.. But I am not talking about a feeling of familiarity rather one of unease-- I think perhaps when you've a bad day any little thing can exacerbate you even a kind gesture or something pretty..
I usually find pictures of stairwells attractive just that one bugged me for some reason last night on first glance.. I am over it now when I look at it I feel nothing

**ardianto** · 10-13-2012

I don't know why, when I saw limestone hill, I felt familiar with it. I could feel atmosphere of a quiet village with limestone hill, and I felt like I was there.

But I don't believe in reincarnation.

**glo** · 10-13-2012

Originally Posted by ardianto

I don't know why, when I saw limestone hill, I felt familiar with it. I could feel atmosphere of a quiet village with limestone hill, and I felt like I was there.
But I don't believe in reincarnation.

Actually, having said that I have never experienced such a feeling, that's not quite true. Ardianto's post reminded me.

I have always felt a real association with England and the English language - even long before I ever came to this country. And I remember the first time I saw the rolling hills in England, having a sense of 'coming home'.

I don't believe in reincarnation either.