To Illustrate: Adversity

In his best-selling book Authentic Happiness, Dr. Martin Seligman discusses the things that actually make us happier. In his discussion, he writes of the positive benefits of religious faith. Seligman notes that religious people are more optimistic than the general populace. He quotes the Christian mystic Julian of Norwich, who wrote out of the experience of enduring Europe's Black plague:

But we all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well…He said, "Thou shall not be tempested, thou shall not be travailed, thou shall not be diseased," but he said, "Thou shall not be overcome."