How To Find Happiness In A Difficult Situation

Encountering difficulties is a part of the human experience. It’s safe to assume that a strong majority of people have experienced some form of a difficult situation. It may have resulted in sadness, depression, trauma, emotional damage, anger, and the list goes on. The reality is any challenge can present itself to anybody at any time. Even if we try to live a sheltered and protected life, the risk of chaos still exists.

We can try to make efforts to overcome the trying times. We can talk it out with someone who wronged us, tell an authority figure about a bully, exercise and take care of the way we eat, etc. Trying to resolve life’s problems is a great way to deal with many of them. But that’s not always an option.

Sometimes problems may be out of your control. You could find yourself overwhelmed or overpowered –unable to take action. In these circumstances you are stuck with your difficult situation. If this is how life plays out, then you should have the tools to re-establish happiness in your life. We shouldn’t let the things that are out of our control determine the path our emotional well-being takes.

Ways to find happiness during tough times

Here are some ways to find happiness in challenging times.

1. Don’t seek too much control

Control is such a beautiful thing for so many of us comfort seekers. We may feel that things should constantly go as planned. We may expect ourselves to have an ability to control the path we take and the outcomes we reach. Most of us avoid chaos, and rightfully so. Chaos means we do not know what can happen next and this means…take a guess…we are not in control.

Control should never be an expectation in your life. We need to let go of control for one key reason; control is never a guarantee. Even if things seem to be in our grasp, the reality may be the opposite. Any human feeling like they always do and always should have control is falling victim to a fallacy. It’s a mistaken belief that does not reflect the reality most of us live in. Control is fragile and we should not hinge our happiness on something that can so easily change. This makes our joy contingent on something that can change at any time. Your ultimate goal here should be to take as much control over your happiness as possible.

2. Radical Acceptance

Radical acceptance entails just what the name states. In this situation, use it to move towards accepting challenges life may have dealt you. This doesn’t mean being happy about it or agreeing with it. You may wish things were different, but you still accept them the way they are. That’s what radical acceptance is about.

Living with a difficult situation regardless of how impactful it may be is the ultimate goal to achieve by using this. Try spending a few minutes every day solely on acceptance. Remember, you should not be attempting to combat how you feel about your circumstances. Instead work on deeply and truly accepting them. A phrase for you here could be, “I am very sad/angry about this, but I accept it as what happened. I can’t change it, so I will live with it.”

3. Laugh

I mean they do say laughter is the best medicine so you might as well try. It works for so many other people, it has favorable odds for you too. Look for comedy where comedy is hard to find. Now don’t go laughing if your friend is crying to you over their dead goldfish, but find humor in the right places. You may slip and fall and decide to laugh it off. Maybe someone insulted you and you think back to yourself and try to take it as a joke.

If you are going through something that you would struggle to turn into a light-hearted matter, then try to laugh at something else. Put on a funny YouTube video and laugh. Go on a meme page and laugh. Pull up a comedy show and have a blast. Try not to apply this tip to the point where you can’t take anything seriously and you are avoiding reality. But use laughter in moderation to distract yourself in healthy ways along with other tips here.

4. Do something that makes you happy

You should engage in a hobby or activity that brings you joy and helps you find purpose. Take a look at some people with PTSD who use art as a way to assist with healing. Creating artwork confers many benefits for people with PTSD, and among them is the fact that it is a healthy distraction. The keyword here being healthy. There are unhealthy distractions (like scrolling for hours on your phone, smoking, etc.) that you should be limiting yourself from.

Not only does doing something you enjoy make you feel good, it helps relieve your mind of thoughts you’d rather avoid. You should be doing what you enjoy in order to combat negative feelings with positive and rewarding ones. At the same time, you should be focusing on something other than what is causing you distress.

5. Get in your bubble (within reason)

This does NOT mean socially isolating yourself. Enriching social interactions are actually helpful in stressful situations. By getting in your bubble, I mean remove yourself emotionally from the world around you. Stop caring. Ignore where you are. Ignore what has happened/is happening to you. Ignore your feelings and just let them flow.

There are circumstances where this is not easy. There are situations you may not be able to ignore easily or at all. But this is only one item on this list at the end of the day. You can use this strategy and gain as much from it as you are able to. Sometimes you may need to just use acceptance and allow yourself to go through an emotional roller coaster. But there are easier challenges in life that you can ignore and you can choose to live in your own bubble despite them.

Imagine your own world in your mind. Your mind can literally take you anywhere you want with your imagination. Envision your happy place and take yourself there. Who knows, this may one day be your reality. And if it isn’t, that’s okay too! Find happiness because that is ultimately what’s most important.

6. Breathe calmly (doesn’t have to be deep, but calm)

When you are practicing acceptance, you shouldn’t be super focused on calm breathing because your thoughts should flow and take their course. But when you have a few moments, try calm breathing to relax yourself. This is a frequently recommended strategy for dealing with anxiety and fear, as well! You don’t have to breathe deeply, but try to breath calmly. Basically just relax your muscles and allow the air to flow in and out as the body wants.

7. Find meaning outside of the tough times

Not only should you search for your own joy in tough times, you should also look for your own purpose. Your purpose can be in a career or area of study but it really doesn’t even have to be. It could be your passions or hobbies. It could be mastering a skill you have to the point you become proficient at it and put it to use to help yourself and others. Finding purpose can mean many different things to different people. What helps you find meaning or purpose is really up to you. Try to make it something that makes you feel good and you’ve just checked off two things on this list.

Conclusion

Tough times can find anyone at any time. What life throws at you is not always your choice. You’ll seldom be able to set your own conditions and have your life adhere to them. What you can control is your inner peace and your own happiness. For this reason, we must learn to find happiness in difficult situations and have that skill at our disposal in the event we need it. Having that skill in your repertoire will give you the true key to happiness even if circumstances aren’t in your favor.