Our bodies constantly take away our contentment, forcing us to fulfill a condition in order to have it temporarily return. As time passes we lose moments which we'll never get back again. Our friends grow apart from us, the people we care about die. As we age, we might lose some of our senses, or even our memories and mind. Eventually we'll experience the final loss, as we're forced to endure the process of dying.
If you try to make an honest assessment of human life, you might come to the realization that our particular version of conscious awareness can be mostly, if not entirely defined by the perception and measurement of loss. Whether fully aware of it or not, people spend their entire lives trying desperately to prevent and mitigate all forms of suffering. From working to be able to afford food and a place to live, to achieving financial security, to trying to find a sexual partner, pretty much everything we work towards is done in an effort to avoid what follows from failing to achieve it. As I've posted about before, pleasure is largely a perception of negative value reduction. Given the right conditions, even physical pain can be pleasurable if the suffering it relieves is greater than the pain response it produces (think about what happens when you punch a wall).
Upon accepting all of this, I think it follows that preparing ourselves emotionally for suffering and loss is probably the most important thing that any of us can do. The more accepting you can be of your present and future suffering, the less it should be capable of harming you. This doesn't mean that you have to "man up", or simply force yourself to take whatever comes regardless of how bad it is, as suicide is always an option. What I'm saying is that outside of killing ourselves to prevent it, there are countless times when we're forced to experience things being taken away from us, and the more willing you are to let things go, the easier it will be on you.
For instance, I have eye problems which could potentially cause me to lose a lot of my vision in the future, possibly before I intend to kill myself. So due to this, one of the things I try to accept is that I might not have complete access to all of my current copes forever. Speaking of suicide, another thing I've essentially already accepted is that I'm going to die eventually. The way I see it is that if I live in such a way as to prepare myself for death, then the dying won't be as bad.
If you try to make an honest assessment of human life, you might come to the realization that our particular version of conscious awareness can be mostly, if not entirely defined by the perception and measurement of loss. Whether fully aware of it or not, people spend their entire lives trying desperately to prevent and mitigate all forms of suffering. From working to be able to afford food and a place to live, to achieving financial security, to trying to find a sexual partner, pretty much everything we work towards is done in an effort to avoid what follows from failing to achieve it. As I've posted about before, pleasure is largely a perception of negative value reduction. Given the right conditions, even physical pain can be pleasurable if the suffering it relieves is greater than the pain response it produces (think about what happens when you punch a wall).
Upon accepting all of this, I think it follows that preparing ourselves emotionally for suffering and loss is probably the most important thing that any of us can do. The more accepting you can be of your present and future suffering, the less it should be capable of harming you. This doesn't mean that you have to "man up", or simply force yourself to take whatever comes regardless of how bad it is, as suicide is always an option. What I'm saying is that outside of killing ourselves to prevent it, there are countless times when we're forced to experience things being taken away from us, and the more willing you are to let things go, the easier it will be on you.
For instance, I have eye problems which could potentially cause me to lose a lot of my vision in the future, possibly before I intend to kill myself. So due to this, one of the things I try to accept is that I might not have complete access to all of my current copes forever. Speaking of suicide, another thing I've essentially already accepted is that I'm going to die eventually. The way I see it is that if I live in such a way as to prepare myself for death, then the dying won't be as bad.
