I know that at the core of each religion there is the truth, heavily obscured in some cases, but it's there.

The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting.

"Going with the flow" is for some people an excuse for not taking action and it refers usually to one's life situation.

Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let it go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry or hard-done by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane.

Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible.

...the relationship is here to make you conscious instead of happy.

Probably, if you are successful in this world you are stressed, and if you are a failure, you are bored!