Draw Wisdom From Your Suffering

The Pursuit of Happiness Robs Us of Depth and Authenticity

Image of jars containing fireflies (a symbol for happiness); Image generated by writer using DaVinci AI

It’s said that the only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. I’d add suffering.

This might sound like a harsh take on a sometimes hostile and often unpredictable world, but it’s not inaccurate.

Now, I’m not saying that life is one long miserable slog from one trauma to the next, but rather that pain simply cannot be avoided. Emotional, mental, psychological, physical suffering. They are all but inevitable.

The death of a loved one. Unexpected termination. Financial hardship. Health scares. Random accidents. Psychological abuse. Intolerable stress. Existential dread. Mental health crises.

The longer you live and the more you experience, the more of these challenges you will face.

Much of the self-help and pop psychology wisdom out there — whether explicitly or implicitly — can pathologize our negative emotional experiences, positioning them as problems to be fixed, solved or generally avoided.

A common recommendation, even in therapeutic disciplines like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, is to use our minds to reframe negative occurrences into opportunities.