Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. How do we find happiness when things

aren't going very well, when things in our life are sad? How do we find happiness during these times? This was an email

sent to me by one of our listeners named Pat, and it's a really good question. Pat writes, Dr. Puff, you guide us into living in the now, enjoying and being happy in the

present moment, and no matter what situation one is in, one can be happy. However, you also say to feel your feelings and not run away from feelings.

What do you mean by this? How do we do both?

If we are in a sad situation you say to face the feelings, yet also to live and enjoy

the present moment. Please help me understand this fully. Sincerely, Pat.

I love this question because I really think it addresses many of the concerns of the

listeners to this podcast.

Can we be happy when there are sad things going on in our lives. Is that possible? Yes, it is. But how? How do we find

happiness when things aren't going very well.

I've bulleted down to three steps, three steps that we need to do in order to find happiness

when things aren't going well. I know it may seem impossible right now, particularly if we're going

through some really hard times, but it is possible and we can truly have beautiful lives

no matter what.

So let's begin to explore.

First, what is the first step of being happy

when things really suck?

For those of you who may be new to this podcast, I'm a clinical psychologist by trade.

For over the past 30 years, I've been helping people who are sad, who are having really difficult times get better.

And one thing I've learned is that when we need to heal, we really can't spend all day doing it. We probably can spend about an hour,

maybe a little bit more, per day healing. The rest of the time we have to just live life.

...