"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive". (Bruce Springsteen, "Badlands")"It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive" is one of my favorite lines from any song I know. I often quote it to people I see in my psychotherapy practice because it so accurately captures their struggle to find happiness and their life purpose.For many people, one of the biggest obstacles to finding their life purpose is that they become uncomfortable when they feel happy. I know this sounds strange. Isn't happiness what we all want? It is. But for many people, feeling the happiness that goes along with finding their life path--feeling joy, contentment, a sense of expansiveness-- can also feel very dangerous. Usually, they're not aware of the danger. Instead, they find themselves sabotaging their goals without knowing why. Just when they've finished creating something that they think is great-- a song, an essay, a piece of art-- they decide that it's terrible and throw it away. Just when they complete a graduate degree, they decide they've chosen the wrong field. Just when they've accomplished something that's important to them, they decide it doesn't matter and give it up.What I love about "It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive" is that people who struggle to hold onto a feeling of happiness often feel that it IS a sin to be happy. Without being aware of it, they feel that their happiness threatens important relationships in their lives. They may have had a depressed parent who felt abandoned when they began to pursue their own interests. They may have had an anxious parent who conveyed the idea that the world is a dangerous place where pursuing your goals will only get you in trouble. Every person's experience is different. But if you are having trouble finding your life purpose, the issue may not be that you just haven't found the right thing to do with your life. It may be that you feel that it's wrong to feel good. If that's the case, your life path may be right in front of you but you can't see it because it feels dangerous to feel the happiness that goes along with pursuing your life purpose.If you think this is true for you, I encourage you to consider psychotherapy. Because feeling that it's a sin to be glad you're alive is often unconscious- and because the sources of this feeling are even more unconscious-- having someone who can help you identify the things that are keeping you stuck can be invaluable in helping you get on the path to finding happiness in your life purpose. It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive. Really.