Challenging the firmly held belief that we must brave our circumstances and endure life’s crises, You Don’t Have to Suffer emphasizes that while hurt is inevitable in life, suffering is not. The author explains that we can consciously choose how and how much we suffer over our own experiences and tragedies. We can experience our losses, hardships, and disappointments and let go of them. We learn to apply these insights to our separation from others, recovery from grief, relationships with our parents and children, and our own bodies.

Rather than “pour salt in our wounds”—by dramatizing, personalizing, and romanticizing events, living in the past, going it alone, and denying our needs—Judy Tatelbaum shows us how to free ourselves and see life not as a “predicament” but as a challenge and a gift. You Don’t Have to Suffer takes readers through the various trials and tribulations of how we suffer, why we choose to continue to suffer, and ultimately, how we can raise ourselves above life’s challenges.