"... it pointed to an alternative approach, a 'negative path' to happiness, which entailed taking a radically different stance towards those things that most of us spend our lives trying hard to avoid. It involved learning to enjoy uncertainty, embracing insecurity, stopping trying to think positively, becoming familiar with failure, even learning to value death, In short, all these people seemed to agree that in order to be truly happy we might actually need to be willing to experience more negative emotions--or, at the every least, to learn to stop running quite so hard from them. Which is a bewildering thought, and one that calls into question not just our methods for achieving happiness, but also our assumptions about what 'happiness' really means."
--The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman

I highly recommend checking this book out for yourself; you can find out more--and order a copy--by clicking here.

Memento-mori themed painting found here.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-antidote-happiness-for-people-who.html