With so many feeling the understandable stress of the times in which we live, it’s valid to ask how any of us can be happy in the midst of it all. In her newest book TEARS TO TRIUMPH: The Spiritual Journey from Suffering to Enlightenment, Marianne Williamson places our suffering within spiritual context. Writing of a “spectrum of normal human despair” due to such situations as difficult break-ups, financial or professional loss, the death of a loved one, even societal or political turmoil, Williamson reminds us that such situations, though often difficult, are not mental illnesses and need not be treated as such. In fact, such times in life can be, if contextualized spiritually, crucibles for our greatest spiritual growth. Join Marianne Williamson for an in-depth look, at the true source of human despair and the spiritual power by which we may transcend it.

In the words of the poet Kahlil Gibran, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Our personal suffering is often a sacred initiation into a deeper experience of who we are as people, and why we’re on the earth. I’ve sought to view the origins of deep sadness through a spiritual lens, in order to illumine the path that leads beyond.