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Old 09-19-2019, 09:08 PM
 
Location: San Antonio
3,536 posts, read 12,302,280 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by celticseas View Post
I always hear "no one has an easy life", "everyone has struggles even if the struggles are invisible". etc etc....but I wonder if that's the case?

Human life is in a way a balance of your birth lottery along with choices. Some people are born into fortunate circumstances and make good choices. Other bad choices. Some born into really bad circumstances and don't seem to make too many choices that benefit them in the long run.

I just think if we can point to someone who has it really bad in many ways (blind and deaf kid in a third world country in the middle of a famine), someone who suffers physically, emotionally, etc.. Couldn't there be someone the exact opposite (healthy person born to a well off family with enough street smarts to navigate life and won't ever risk homelessness, loss of loved ones too soon, financial debts, worrying about paying the bills). Someone who's life would look on the surface, really easy?
Sure, on the surface really easy. But everyone has demons. Maybe a lost love? Lack of approval from mom?

Relatively easy, sure, but never completely and totally easy. If your life is too easy, I think the lack of adversity gives you a lack of coping skills, which will lead to some sort of hardship at some point.
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Old 09-19-2019, 09:14 PM
 
Location: SF/Mill Valley
8,565 posts, read 3,791,226 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HDWill1 View Post
Agreed, I think people who grow up upper middle class tend to feel social pressure to pursue high-earning careers that they may not be particularly well suited for. Like the law-- so many lawyers are miserable all the time.
Stereotyping lawyers as ‘miserable’ is a rather deflective way for you to answer the question; so is your point, then, lawyers don’t have easy lives?
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Old 09-19-2019, 09:29 PM
 
Location: SF/Mill Valley
8,565 posts, read 3,791,226 times
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One can have an easy life and not be happy (and one can be happy and not had it easy).

Rarely, if ever, does someone experience both - because in one way or another, we have to put the (physical and/or emotional) work in for happiness through love and the pursuit of what matters.
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Old 09-19-2019, 10:01 PM
 
8,238 posts, read 6,557,601 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CorporateCowboy View Post

One can have an easy life and not be happy (and one can be happy and not had it easy).

Rarely, if ever, does someone experience both - because in one way or another, we have to put the (physical and/or emotional) work in for happiness through love and the pursuit of what matters.
I don't agree with the above. It doesn't ring true. Plenty of people (millions if not billions) have both an easy life and happiness.

And happiness is not based predominantly on finding love with a significant other or just finding 'love' in general. Plenty of people do not have a significant other or do not have children and are happy in their life.

Also, finding love in finding a significant other comes quite easily for many many people. While they also have happiness.

Last edited by matisse12; 09-19-2019 at 10:59 PM..
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Old 09-20-2019, 06:48 AM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,938 posts, read 31,079,407 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmarie123 View Post
Sure, on the surface really easy. But everyone has demons. Maybe a lost love? Lack of approval from mom?

Relatively easy, sure, but never completely and totally easy. If your life is too easy, I think the lack of adversity gives you a lack of coping skills, which will lead to some sort of hardship at some point.
If you look for some kind of problem, you can find most certainly find something wherever you are looking.
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Old 09-20-2019, 08:03 AM
 
14,294 posts, read 13,157,398 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pikabike View Post
A prisoner in solitary confinement has a very easy life. No responsibilities, no job, no bills to pay, minimal interaction with other beings.

You did say EASY, not luxurious.
There is absolutely nothing easy about what the brain does to a person under these circumstances.
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Old 09-20-2019, 08:30 AM
 
50,470 posts, read 36,126,975 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by somebodynew View Post
There is absolutely nothing easy about what the brain does to a person under these circumstances.

I agree. I also think this about those mentioned that "have it easy but can't enjoy it". Someone with those inner demons or incapacity to enjoy life does not have an easy life regardless of their life circumstances.
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Old 09-20-2019, 09:18 AM
 
Location: Germany
716 posts, read 423,669 times
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Self-awareness is a huge part of having a generally "easy" and happy life.

Of course there are people who were unlucky and where born under bad circumstances, but the point is what you do with the hand you were given. After you have gotten away from this bad situation, have you learned something? Has it made you appreciate something more? Can you see yourself more objectively?

This is the constant struggle that everyone faces.
We either accept the hand we were dealt with and move on seeking happiness, or we constantly look back and fantasize what could have been if this or that. We compare our lives with other peoples' lives. It is useless - there's only this moment.
We are who we are and that's it.

And don't forget - what is easy for you, maybe difficult for someone else.
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Old 09-20-2019, 09:42 AM
 
9,868 posts, read 7,650,602 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by somebodynew View Post
There is absolutely nothing easy about what the brain does to a person under these circumstances.
The OP asked about easiness, not happiness.
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Old 09-20-2019, 09:50 AM
 
35,521 posts, read 17,814,505 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pikabike View Post
The OP asked about easiness, not happiness.
If by "easy" you mean the person has to put forth very little effort in order to be fed, then you could certainly state that someone in a coma has an "easy" life.

I don't think any of us view it with that perspective.
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