“Life Is Suffering” is the first of Buddhism’s four noble truths.
I’m not sure about the other three, but that first one? I can’t argue with it.
Life means pain and fear, anger and hopelessness, stress and anxiety, loss and misery. It means having to deal with a world that isn’t fair; a world where bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. A world where the most violent are rewarded, and the most peaceful are punished.
Suffering is part and parcel of the human condition. The good we experience comes at the price of the evil we have to endure. It’s not all gloom, however. Though our weaknesses outnumber our strengths, and our ability to do good is outclassed by our capacity for evil, there is hope for a better future.
In order to realize this hope, we have to own our imperfections, and accept the imperfections of the world around us. For this reason, I started Mister Misery to chronicle my quest to prosper in a wicked world. A world that is, more often than not, something of an embarrassment. The Universe is rather amazing. As far as we know, we’re the only creatures capable of appreciating the fact that we exist, and yet we spend most of our time running away from ourselves.
We’ll never cure ourselves of our imperfections, or the world of the things which ail it, unless we find the truth to face our pain head on.
This site is a destination point for anyone looking to understand what it means to be depressed, stressed, and anxious, and how they can overcome those states. I’ll be sharing some of the latest research as it’s made available, and providing links to excellent resources across the web. Occasionally, I’ll also offer a few of my own darker and more cynical observations about coping with depression.
Visit often and frequently, and don’t forget to subscribe to Mister Misery’s RSS feed.
- The Posts of 2008
- In 2009, I resolve to be…
- A diet of happy thoughts
- Misery Around The Web
- Daily meditation stops wandering thoughts
- Quackery, Pseudoscience, and You.
- Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)
- Personal Stories and Interviews, a round-up
- The Power of Posture
- Beating Seasonal Affective Disorder
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