I think its all about perspective. I was much more high maintenance with a lot of needs and desires (for attention, for prestige, for degrees, etc) before I got really sick. I spent a few months in constant pain due to migraines, and also had miscarriages. All of a sudden a day without pain was a great thing, whereas before I just took feeling good for granted. When I finally got pregnant successfully, I wasn’t worried about my stretch marks and weight gain like so many other moms because I was just so, so thankful the baby was healthy. That year was a wakeup call for me, it was like blinders had been removed from my eyes. I no longer wanted to be important, or accomplished, I just wanted to be healthy and happy with my family.
Now I take genuine delight from small things like going on walks with the baby, drinking tea and reading a book, or having dinner with family and friends. It sounds so cliché, but it really is hard to appreciate the small stuff if you think you will always have it. For me, hardship was the best way to really figure out how to be grateful and appreciative in my life. If one were to try to recreate this experience sans actual pain/suffering, I think the only way to do it would be to really try to foster perspective in your own life through meditation, gratitude exercises, and purposefully exposing yourself to harsher scenarios than your own existence (ex: volunteering with the ill, disabled, impoverished; taking a moment to read about difficult situations in the world; watching educational documentaries and shows on societal issues, etc).