Why your Epicurean approach will never make you truly happy | Arthur Brooks

🌍 **Mother Nature doesn’t care if we’re happy.** Her only goal? Survival. She wired us to seek food, safety, and reproduction — not happiness. In fact, 😟 **negative emotions serve a purpose**. Fear, anger, and sadness are evolutionary tools to keep us alert and responsive to threats. Mother Nature *needs* us to be uncomfortable sometimes. But here's the twist: **Happiness is our responsibility.** It's a human — maybe even divine — pursuit. 🧘‍♂️ Enter Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher. Contrary to the common image of indulgence, his idea of happiness was simple: 👉 **Eliminate suffering**. By reducing sources of pain — toxic relationships, stressful habits, unnecessary friction — we can create space for peace. It's not about chasing pleasure, but avoiding harm. And that idea has echoed through history. Today, we’re living in what some call an **“epicurean age.”** We overprotect kids from pain, shield students from uncomfortable ideas, and try to bubble-wrap life. But here's the problem... ⚠️ **Avoiding suffering doesn’t eliminate unhappiness.** It just weakens us. We still experience negative emotions — without the growth that comes from hardship. 🌓 As Carl Jung put it: > “We only know what good is because we’ve seen bad.” By avoiding discomfort, we also rob ourselves of contrast — the very thing that gives joy its meaning. So ironically, in shielding ourselves from pain, we may be shutting the door on bliss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices