As children we learn that we have to do certain things that we don’t enjoy because it is necessary. We may resist ‘work’ for example, because it isn’t something we really enjoy. It is something we do, in order to have money, in order to then do what we enjoy. Thus joy becomes a future event that quite likely doesn’t happen, because the brain isn’t wired that way to start with. The brain experiences happiness in the present moment, full stop. So when we set up pathways of misery, we feel that same misery no matter how things actually improve. We can get all the money we want, or get the coolest partner, but if the brain pattern has misery, that’s how we feel. ugh. I know. So therein comes meditation, because meditation and other mind oriented practices help change the neural networks that create the experience of misery.