A Misconception about Reducing Suffering
Can reducing suffering be pursued in a healthy and inspiring way?
Some may assume that working to reduce suffering must be a joyless, tedious pursuit. This reaction is understandable. If we focus on the worst forms of suffering, we will confront things that may make us sad or fearful. We may come to appreciate just how much suffering exists and how grim things are for far too many beings. And we may reflect on how difficult it often is to reduce suffering, making the task feel like an uphill battle. Thinking about this can be difficult, frustrating, and emotionally draining.
Yet it does not have to be this way. As Magnus Vinding argues in his new book Compassionate Purpose, many of these challenges can be overcome, at least partially, so that reducing suffering can become healthy, motivating, and deeply meaningful. Without deluding ourselves about the challenges we face and the scale of suffering in the world, we can cultivate a hope that keeps us going and even allows us to feel grounded and uplifted while working to reduce suffering.
Higher Purpose
A few ideas can help. First, we would benefit from thinking about higher purpose. It may sound trite, but it is true: having a sense of purpose can be good for us. It can motivate us, helping us persevere through difficulties, and make us feel that our lives matter.
People with a strong sense of purpose tend to be happier and healthier. A prosocial purpose, one aimed at benefiting others, may be especially valuable. Working to help others taps into our social nature and helps us feel connected to others. It may also help shift our attention away from ourselves, which can be beneficial given that excessive self-focus often figures in depression and anxiety.
Perhaps a purpose aimed at reducing suffering strikes us as especially compelling. What, we might ask ourselves, could be more meaningful than helping to spare others from the worst? Perhaps such a purpose could carry us through the greatest difficulties we can face.
Compassion v. Empathy
Second, we should appreciate the distinction between compassion and empathy. Emotional empathy involves feeling with another being—resonating deeply with their distress, and in some cases partly taking it on ourselves. That can be valuable, but it can also become overwhelming, especially when we are confronting severe suffering. By contrast, compassion is more a matter of feeling for others: concern for their suffering, combined with a desire to help relieve it.
A compassionate orientation may be more sustainable than trying to emotionally absorb the suffering we hope to reduce. While the latter can seem more meaningful or authentic, it may also lead to burnout, undermining our ability to help. Compassion, by contrast, can keep us focused on reducing suffering without losing ourselves in it. Research has linked compassion training to lower levels of self-reported depression and anxiety, as well as other benefits including greater compassion toward both oneself and others.
Reframing the Project
Third, we can reframe the project of reducing suffering in more psychologically motivating ways. For better or worse, narratives matter: while “cold,” careful reasoning helps us identify where we can do the most good, it’s our emotions that propel us to act. We should therefore find ways of understanding the project of reducing suffering that engage both head and heart.
We can do this all without deluding ourselves. We need not imagine that we can protect all sentient beings from suffering, only that we can protect some. After all, we can. And reducing even a small amount of suffering matters, even if it feels like only a “drop in the bucket.”
We might also adopt something like an underdog mentality—one that recognizes the immense challenge before us yet resolves, against all odds, to take it on anyway. We might even reframe the project of reducing suffering more broadly. If we are more motivated by the idea of creating something good than by removing something bad, we can think of the project as one of building supportive communities, better institutions, protective systems, useful knowledge, and compassionate habits and virtues.
More broadly, we might see ourselves as helping to build a more compassionate world—or even a kind of fortress that shields sentient beings from suffering.
Taking Care of Ourselves
Finally, we also can—and should—take care of ourselves so that we are better equipped to face the challenges before us. This means attending to both our physical and mental health: getting enough sleep, eating well, cultivating supportive relationships, and seeking professional help when needed. It may also mean making sure to extend compassion to ourselves, not just to others. Caring for ourselves and cultivating healthy relationships and communities helps sustain our efforts over the long run.
With these ideas in mind, we can dispel the myth that working to reduce suffering must be a grim pursuit. The project may be difficult, but it can also be healthy and deeply fulfilling. If you’d like to learn more about how, consider picking up the book, which you can read for free here.