The Paradoxical Connection Between Suffering And Happiness

The paradoxical connection between suffering and happiness is one that leaves room for various interpretations of the relationship. To suffer is to experience a feeling contrary to happiness, but one must suffer in order to know what happiness truly is. Suffering allows people to develop certain qualities that will ultimately make them happier. People who have suffered have been subjected to circumstances that are otherwise unfathomable, such as: witnessing the stark contrast between pleasure and pain, and facing circumstances that they cannot simply escape from, both of which allow them to develop qualities that make them happier in the long run.
Happiness and general pleasure inducing experiences alone cannot make one happy. Happiness is

Suffering allows people to see the contrast between pleasure and pain. Findings in a study conducted by Phillip Brickman, Ronnie Janoff-Bulman and Dan Coates, “Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?” states “Individuals [will] enhance the relative value of their own outcome by comparing it with the less fortunate other, whereas [in a group where everyone is equal], there would be no such comparison to elevate their appreciation of their standing” (151). This is true not just for comparison from person to person, but also between past events and the present. Daniel Nettle’s article “Comfort and Joy” states “Happiness stems from the subsequent processes that compared the pain [one] went through with the pain [they] expected or had experienced [previously]” (21). The amount or the intensity of suffering a person has endured shapes their happiness. The relativity of overall happiness allows the person to see their current situation as much better than it was during the time when they were facing hardships. In his

Suffering is not something that one can choose to, or choose not to partake in. To continue living day to day in a state of suffering is not easy. Not being able to escape from the suffering obligates the person to learn to work hard to get past the low points in life. A significant factor contributing to happiness is a sense of accomplishment. People are happier when they feel like their efforts are making a change and that their diligence is worth something. Suffering through difficult parts of life increases a person’s contentment with themselves and with their life, as they feel like they have overcome something they thought they were incapable of. For instance, in the article “Beyond Money” by Ed Diener and Martin E.P. Seligman, it is stated that “Some people consider paid work to be an unpleasant activity that must be suffered in order to earn money. Research, however, indicates that people obtain pleasure from their jobs” (45). Having endured through hardships in order to get to a better place in life makes people feel like they are worthy of being happy as they have worked hard to get where they are- that they are capable of more. Happiness is not solely a result of the end product, but rather the journey, and suffering provides a journey to embark on, to find