Overcoming Suffering Essay PDF

Seher Ahmed Yuri Horner English 1302-314 September 23, 2024 Overcoming Suffering Dealing with difficult situations is a personal journey as each person responds to these challenges in their own way. Some people tend to move on quicker than others, but how does one move on from a painful event i...

Seher Ahmed Yuri Horner English 1302-314 September 23, 2024 Overcoming Suffering Dealing with difficult situations is a personal journey as each person responds to these challenges in their own way. Some people tend to move on quicker than others, but how does one move on from a painful event is the question. Can we recover from it, or do we just overlook it as time goes on? We will be comparing the perspective of David Brooks, Emily Esfahani Smith, and Giles Fraser on unhappiness. In David Brooks's essay "What Suffering Does" he tells us that sometimes in life we go through times that give us a purpose to live by. Brooks states *"*The right response to this sort of pain is not pleasure. It's holiness. I don't even mean that in a purely religious sense. It means seeing life as a moral drama, placing the hard experiences in a moral context and trying to redeem something bad by turning it into something sacred" (Brooks 228). Brooks tells us that giving negative experiences a deeper meaning can impact on our lives in a positive manner. This positivity lets us heal which can slowly be transformed into happiness. Finding a purpose in suffering is a way to overcome our hardships. This focus can be anything that helps us endure pain in a manageable way. In my culture, sometimes people put a water source in places where water is scarce, or water coolers for the public passing by on roads in the memory of people who are gone. This is a source of good deeds for the deceased. Another thing people do is perform Umrah-an act of worship performed by Muslims in Mecca around the Kabbah- in their name after they have passed. These small, meaningful actions bring depth to our lives and foster our healing. It gives us a sense of joy knowing that our beloved ones will be earning good deeds even after they are gone. One thing Brooks and Smith could probably agree on would be Victor Frankl's philosophy about life and unhappiness. In Smith's essay: "There's more to Life Than Just Being Happy" Smith states "The amount of time people report feeling good are bad correlates with happiness but not at all meaning. Meaning, on the other hand, is enduring" (Smith 190). "Meaning" means to endure, the tough times in our life, the hardships that occur during an important event, or the things we give up for those that are close to us. Smith tells us that in Frankl's adulthood he had to make a choice which was to either give up his deams and life or to choose his parents. This serves as a beautiful example of endurance or meaning. Frankl chose his parents and his fellow inmates, he decided to devote his life to this cause of serving his people and taking care of his parents when he knew they needed him the most. This cause was what gave him strength to endure his suffering. Brooks also gave a similar example in his essay where he mentions Victor Frankl in which he states, "Prisoners in the concentration camp with psychologist Victor Frankl rededicated themselves to living up to the hopes of their loved ones, even though those loved ones might themselves, be dead already". Brooks tells us that the prisoners started to endure their suffering for the sake of people they loved. This endurance was a meaning to them letting them overcome their suffering. Medical conditions that define the state of being unhappy are a mere illusion. In his essay "Taking Pills for Unhappiness Reinforces the Idea That Being Sad is Not Human" Fraser states, "If we translate misery into some sort of chemical imbalance then someone can make big money out of it. But unhappiness is often a perfectly proper response to the state of the world" (Fraser 195). Fraser tells us that if we start to think of unhappiness as a medical condition, big pharmaceutical companies can make a lot of money out of it, which is 2024 they are. Our response to an unpleasant situation is completely normal. We as human beings were made to face the good and bad of this world. Suffering is a huge part of our lives. It is almost impossible to say that a person has never suffered in their life. For some this suffering can be small, but for others it is big losses. In any case reacting to it or being sad over it is something thatg is very common. It is us humans who let these big monopolies rule over us. If we hadn't believed their made-up conditions for something that is normal, we would never have to think about taking pills as a response to being sad. While it is true that being sad is a normal part of life there are still some people who are facing a hard time, for example, people who have PTSD are traumatized and cannot get out of their suffering easily. It is also correct to call these people's situation a medical condition, and it is okay for them to take pills to try to alleviate their suffering or make it less. The way we should handle this is by not letting the negative side of the situation get to our heads, and rather stay positive, and focus on things that make us stay out of this phase or state. We could also engage in activities like yoga, prayer, or meditation to stay calm. Overcoming suffering is not easy, but it is possible. Everyone has their own methods or ways to lessen their stress in suffering. Some hardships can eventually be forgotten as well, but others are hard to leave in the past. As time goes on, we move on past these hard times in our lives and start living a normal life. After looking at David Brooks, Emily Esfahani Smith, and Giles Fraser's perspectives, we can conclude that the best way to overcome suffering is to take the good out of the bad situation and use that as a meaning to live by rather than sticking on to these painful memories. Works Cited Brooks, David. \"What Suffering Does.\" Pursuing Happiness: A Spotlight Reader, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2020, pp. 226-29. Fraser, Giles. \"Taking Pills for Unhappiness Reinforces the Idea That Being Sad Is Not Human.\"Pursuing Happiness: A Spotlight Reader, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, 2^nd^ ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2020, pp. 194-96. Smith, Emily Esfahani. "There's More to Life Than Being Happy." Pursuing Happiness: A Spotlight Reader, edited by Matthew Parfitt and Dawn Skorczewski, 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2020, pp. 187-93.