When we numb [hard feelings], we numb joy, we numb gratitude, we numb happiness.

Brown’s line distills a central claim in her work on vulnerability and emotional health: attempts to blunt or “numb” painful emotions (resentment, shame, grief, anger) rarely stay neatly contained. Because emotions are interconnected, strategies like avoidance, overwork, compulsive scrolling, substance use, or emotional shutdown tend to dampen the whole range of feeling. The quote argues that protecting ourselves from discomfort can also erode our capacity for positive states—joy, gratitude, and happiness—making emotional resilience less about eliminating pain and more about staying present with it. In this view, wholehearted living requires tolerating hard feelings so that richer, more authentic well-being remains possible.