The quote shifts responsibility for distress away from the outside world and back toward the mind that interprets it. Instead of treating an event as inherently painful, it proposes that suffering arises when we label the event as unbearable, unfair, or catastrophic. This is a reversal of the common assumption that circumstances directly inject pain into us.
From this angle, the “external” is merely a trigger, while the true cause is the internal appraisal. That doesn’t deny that events can be difficult; rather, it insists that the emotional wound forms at the moment we assign meaning to what happens. [...]
