Having a Good Time During Bad Times

Posted October 10th, 2014  by Carroll King Schuller

When going through bad times, many find it difficult to stay positive and enjoy life.  It is important to allow yourself to have fun even when things aren’t perfect.  You are not being disloyal to the problem or to the person who has passed away if you are enjoying yourself.  Don’t be afraid to stop and have fun instead of obsessing about the negative thing that is going on.

For example, if you are out of work on disability due to severe depression, lying on the sofa with the drapes drawn is not going to improve your situation.  Don’t feel as though you can’t go out to the movies and not be maudlin and upset.  You may not get another day; have a good time while you have it.  Not worrying about the problem doesn’t mean you are not taking action because solutions are created when you think creatively about the problem; that’s problem solving.  So, use your brain for something that’s great and not worry.

Everyone talks about living in the moment so that it becomes somewhat of a trite statement.  However, if you get a glimmer of hope or light humor, you may want to try to extend that feeling and stretch it into a longer time period.  Living in the moment is a skill that has to be developed with time; it’s about being engaged wherever you are and not being anywhere else in that moment.  Psychologists at Harvard University conducted a study to determine how focused people were on what they were doing and what made them most happy.  They found that many were happiest when engaged in certain tasks, and almost half who had reported that their thoughts wandered beyond the moment were consistently less happy in those instances.  When you learn to embrace happiness, you create a level of peace and joy that borders on euphoria.