Why We Deny Ourselves the Chance of Happiness - The School of Life
Happiness sounds like such an obviously desirable quality, the idea that a person might willingly turn it down makes – on the surface at least – no sense at all. Why would anyone deny themselves life’s supreme end, the goal which to which everything else points, the natural objective of all our endeavours? Yet faced with the possibility of contentment, many of us do appear to manifest a curious preference for despondency. Whatever the opportunities for fulfilment, we stay distinctly loyal to caution, suspicion and fear. We might identify six reasons why – in the end – happiness may simply prove too much of a burden to bear: 1. The Association between Worry and Safety We may refuse happiness because we were once hugely innocent, and paid a high price for our credulity. When we were vulnerable and naive, when we could not muster strength for a fight, a blow came for us out of the darkness whose pain and surprise reverberates to this day. The relationship between being terrified and being
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