But some days, here comes a good lyric like a steady hand on your shoulder:

No, it won’t all go the way it should / but I know the heart of life is good.

It’s not optimism for optimism’s sake.

It’s the kind of wisdom that has seen a thing or two.

The kind of chosen hopefulness that lives on the other side of breakdowns and breakthroughs and chooses to keep chugging along.

Continuum, the album where “The Heart of Life” makes its home, marked a major turning point in Mayer's career and personal development. Moving away from the pop-driven sounds of his earlier albums, he leaned heavily into blues influences and more introspective songwriting. The entire album grapples with coming-of-age realizations: that not everything broken can be fixed, that love sometimes isn’t enough, and that growing older means learning to hold beauty and grief together without dropping either. "The Heart of Life" stands out as a distilled moment of hard-won clarity, a simple truth that can feel revolutionary when you’re hurting.

Somewhere in all that upheaval, he found a phrase that has become a lifeline for so many of us:

No, it won’t all go the way it should / But I know the heart of life is good.

It’s not a denial of pain, but rather a declaration made at the center of it. A thesis that there’s something deeper underneath it all—something quieter, stronger, and maybe even kind. Something that not only still holds after pain and doubt and grief, but something that has been supporting life from beneath it and carrying its weight the whole time. And in realizing this, it points out what is now and has been true alongside the pain and fear.

Fear is a friend who’s misunderstood

The nervous system is a brilliant, clumsy thing. It catalogs danger and remembers hurt. And if we aren’t careful, it keeps us ready for a fight at all times to prevent our being hurt again. But give it the chance, and the nervous system, with our brilliant collection of neurons and synapses, can also learn new songs.

It can rewire.

It heals.

Love turns the whole thing around

This ability to rewrite, heal, change how we process and feel things…psychologists call it “post-traumatic growth.” Neuroscientists call it "neuroplasticity."

John Mayer calls it a chorus that keeps returning, even when the verses are hard.

I know the heart of life is good

Maybe that’s why this song matters in mental health spaces.

Because it doesn’t cheesily smooth-over the struggle, and still is refuses to leave us there hopeless in it.

So here’s to the ones whose hearts have been thrown to the ground—and still beat.

Here’s to the ones who whisper “I believe in good” even with a limp.

Here’s to the mornings that begin again, and the circle of friends that help “defend the silver lining.”

Because

No, it won’t all go the way it should.

But I know it’s good.