Emotional Independence? (in addition to Financial Independence)

[RD]

I notice this 'concept' when reading the preview of this book. (It's due to be available in the next 24 hours)
https://aerbook.com/books/Joy_on_Demand ... 47640.html

In the book (Joy on Demand) the author (Chade Meng TAN, Googler and previously wrote Search Inside Yourself) wrote a section titled "Joy Independent of Sensual and Ego Pleasures". And something just lit up in my brain and the made the connection to ERE (aka Financial Independence).

I quote this short story, and paragraph:
"There was a man who had a skin condition that made his skin itch all the time. Every time he scratched his itch, he felt good. Then one day, a skillful doctor cured him of his skin condition, and he didn't have to scratch anymore. He realized that scratching his itch had felt good, but not having to scratch an itch at all feels even better.
We have a mind condition that makes us itch for two types of pleasure: pleasure of the senses and pleasure of the ego. When our senses are pleasantly stimulated, as when we eat something tasty, or our ego is pleasantly stimulated, as when we are praised for something we did, we feel joy, which is good. What is even better is if we can feel joy independent of sense or ego pleasure."

If this whets your appetite, do check out the book. I'm pondering if I should just grab the kindle version, since shipping will take about 2 weeks to reach my country.

edit: Typo in subject.

[slsdly]

I can quite literally identify with the short story. I had eczema my entire life on my hands. Imagine touching someone and they shudder because your skin is all dried out and scaly . Makes you quite self conscious on top of the itch. Doctors were useless, they just want to prescribe you some cream at best. I had read a small proportion of the population has dairy as a trigger, so I stopped drinking milk. Boom, cleared up within a month. I still marvel at it every day.

I'll add it to my reading list...

[BRUTE]

brute keeps wondering about these types of things, too. it seems that most of humanity's pleasures come from overcoming obstacles. over time the obstacles have changed from tigers and finding shelter to whatever humans struggle with now.

it seems though that humans require struggle of some kind to acquire happiness, and struggle-less humans quickly become sad and depressed. is this just an error in perspective, or does it make sense for a human to structure his/her life to have an intentional struggle? how can this be done without leading to absurd and self-defeating make-work?