Ones positive emotions are tenuous, fleeting and inextricably linked to value systems. That is to say, that one must have faith in ideals, certain beliefs and values. All of this pertains as to how you perceive, interact and cope with the world around you.
Faith is embodied wisdom. And through this faith in something bigger than oneself, values that construct the world around you, and an ideal worth striving toward, the positive emotions follow.
So then, if you lose faith, that is to say you erode your value systems, all that you are left with are negative emotions.
Allow the decay of once sacred values at your peril. For nihilism goes deep. Perhaps deeper than we can comprehend and we must remember, positive emotions are but shallow. They are best secured via ones beliefs and values, ones embodied faith in the world around them.
Whether that be a belief in striving toward the ideal man, the noble warrior or the poet.
It need not be so important which of the archetypal ideals one strives toward, but merely that they have the structure beneath them that allows for the striving. The foundation through which one can attack life head on, and face the tyranny that is existence. You may also have the choice on any given day to sheath ones sword and embody the poet, if you so see fit.
To cut off the branch on which you sit, with the saw that you have built, is to tumble into a pit of vipers. Or worse, a pit of imaginary vipers.
It’s not entirely clear as to how one pulls themselves out of such a hole. Such a torment. For this new terrain is dark, unstable and full of chaos. Exactly the type of environment that despair loves to dwell and is almost certain to be ready to grip your heart and smother your soul.
Faith, to have faith – is to live. For without it, the devil will dance merrily in the streets.
– M L Wood
The Growth Philosophy 
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