Glennon Doyle Melton is an American author, speaker, and activist widely known for her deeply honest reflections on life, motherhood, faith, and personal transformation. Her writing resonates with readers because it embraces vulnerability rather than perfection, encouraging people to face their struggles with courage and compassion. Through storytelling rooted in real emotional experience, she has become a powerful voice for authenticity and self-acceptance in contemporary motivational literature.Doyle has over the years managed to create an impressive global community of readers that resonates with her message and advocacy for truth-telling and courage. She discusses topics such as pain, healing, relationships, and identity in an open and honest manner and encourages her audience to realise that you cannot grow from comfortable situations. Doyle encourages her audience to look beyond the cultural ideal that one should always be joyful and that all emotions are essential.The quote, “You are not supposed to be happy all the time. Life hurts and it’s hard. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because it hurts for everybody. Don’t avoid the pain. You need it. It’s meant for you. Be still with it, let it come, let it go, let it leave you with the fuel you’ll burn to get your work done on this earth,” is widely attributed to Glennon Doyle Melton and reflects her philosophy toward suffering and healing.
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At its core, the quote dismantles the illusion that constant happiness is the goal of life. Doyle reminds us that hardship does not signal weakness or wrongdoing, it simply confirms that we are living deeply. By normalising pain, she removes shame from struggle and replaces it with understanding. Accepting sorrow, disappointment, and uncertainty allows individuals to move through them rather than remain trapped in denial. This acceptance becomes the first step toward genuine healing.The latter part of the quote speaks to pain as a catalyst of change instead of a way to avoid change. Remaining quiet and still with pain requires great strength, and it is within these quiet moments that we find perspective and strength. Doyle is commenting on pain finding a way to become a catalyst of action, creativity, compassion, and purpose. Pain, when honoured instead of avoided, creates a life that adds value to the world. Pain is no longer a barrier, but a guide to finding our true purpose.Glennon Doyle Melton’s quote is a powerful reminder that life contains both happiness and sadness. Instead of pursuing happiness, one should strive to live through emotions with patience. Pain is, with courage, capable of increasing empathy, creating clarity of purpose, and sparking change. The motivational speech she gives, in all essence, is that nothing we feel is ever wasted, every experience that comes with pain can mold the work that comes with it into the life that is supposed to be lived.
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