Life is not always smooth sailing and even the luckiest and best of us face hardships at times. At the moment there are thousands of individuals and families and business severely affected by the worst floods this country has seen in decades (or ever). At The Happiness Institute we strongly believe everyone can experience more happiness but we’re also realistic enough to know that no one will be 100% happy 100% of the time.

With this in mind we recognise that as humans, even as happy humans, we’ll experience a range of emotions (both positive and negative). Accordingly, we also believe that happiness is not just about enjoying the good times (although this is an important part of happiness) but in addition, happiness is also about working through the difficulties we all face from time to time.

Happy people tend to face these challenges more effectively; they’re more resilient…and not surprisingly, resilience breeds happiness. So next time you’re experiencing difficulties or facing adversity or struggling with challenges, try the following resilience tips tested and recommended by The Happiness Institute.

• reach out and utilise your support network (happy & resilient people don’t necessarily cope with everything on their own but rather, they reach out and appropriately ask for help)
• when and where appropriate, use humour and laughter to see things differently and to remain positive
• by all means, learn from your experiences, but don’t dwell on the past (especially on or about things that can’t be changed)
• practice helpful thinking strategies and do whatever you can to remain hopeful & optimistic about the future
• don’t catastrophise and keep things in perspective
• look after your (physical) health including making sure you get plenty of sleep and rest
• accept the reality that the world, and the people in it, are not perfect, and accept the inevitability of change
• don’t lose sight of your purpose, direction and goals, nor of your dreams and ambitions
• don’t stop working towards your goals
• try to learn more about yourself and focus on the positives within yourself
• focus, also, on all the positives in the world

Remember, happiness is not something you should only experience when things are going well…if you practise these resilience strategies then you should also experience happiness during times of difficulty.

Again, we hope you find this helpful and if you’d like an easy to print out version of this just click here for a free download.

PS: if you’d like to know more about what we do here at The Happiness Institute and/or sign up to receive our free weekly eNewsletter then just go along to www.thehappinessinstitute.com