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. Folllow this Podcast for daily Episodes ----------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices