Do you feel sad and maybe unsatisfied? Do you instead, want to start feeling happy? The truth is that everyone wants to feel happy.

Sadness is a base line feeling that feeds into all of our other feelings such as anger, frustration and fear. The deeper we bury the feeling of sadness the harder it is to feel happy.

Stopping being sad and starting to feel happier isn’t a one size fits all.

And to many people, the secret to a happy life lies in fitting into society and subscribing to its unconventional dictates. Happiness is pegged on other people. We strive to impress other people and find favor in their eyes, with the hope that they will help us shake off the feeling of sadness.

We value happiness too much that we leave no room for sadness; we try to keep up an impression of positivity and happiness even when we shouldn’t. We couldn’t be more wrong.

Sadly, constantly trying to be positive and happy isn’t realistic, it is draining, and it only intensifies your feelings of sadness.

It puts you in a fictional bubble that hinders you from finding your real path to happiness.

How to stop being sad? Here are some suggestions for you:

Some of us are hit with way more adversity than others. Some handle it while others can’t. The key to knowing how to stop being sad is knowing that nothing lasts forever, which is a good thing. Sadness and joy both come and go. It is all about riding out the bad and looking forward to the joy.

Anticipate the valleys among the peaks. To understand the secret behind knowing how to stop being sad, remember that life is full of peaks and valleys. What I mean by that is that no one lives a life always joyous. But, in the same respect, no one lives one that is full of nothing but sadness.

Like a camel, you save up the happiness and joyous times in your life to ride out the valleys. If you want to overcome sadness, then learn to manage and recognize the good so that the bad can’t outweigh times of bliss.

Expand Your Thoughts beyond the Problems

Do not limit your thinking. Look at your life, at your problems, and at everything in your life from a broader perspective. Think whether what you have experienced and caused you unhappiness is worth the time and energy that you are spending on it. Direct your mind to possibilities, to solutions, and to new thoughts.

Try to detach yourself from what is causing you unhappiness, and strive to focus on the things that do make you feel happy.

Claim your Power

In his book, The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle talk about how powerful our mind is, and how, if we don’t learn to use it, it will start using us: “The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.

To put it more accurately, it is not so much that you use your mind wrongly—you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you. All the things that truly matter — beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind…”

Get Good Night Sleep

When we are feeling sad, it’s hard to sleep. But sleep is necessary for your our brains to function, and it’s also a major contributor to our moods.

This information can be frustrating to learn because when you’re sad, it’s hard to sleep. Insomnia is an all-too-common symptom of depression.

There are a couple solutions you can try. First, exercise promotes better sleep, so, there’s another reason to get active. Second, a consistent nightly routine will send a message to your body that it’s time to go to bed.

If you find yourself lying awake, though, don’t get upset! That’s not relaxing at all. Do something peaceful until you feel tired. It will get better.

Exercise Your Body

Exercising your body brings more oxygen and life force into your body and into your mind, and fills you with energy. This will make you feel more confident, strong and happy.

Any sport is fine. You can walk, swim, play football or basketball, take a walk or go to the gym.

Bring joy home

Similarly, try to do something every day that brings you joy. This can be hard because depression is exhausting. You might feel like you are too tired to do anything.

But you have to begin somewhere.

Your joyful activity will be different from someone else’s, but just about anything will do. Take a hot bath before bed, spend time with your pet, do something creative, or turn on some music and dance!

Any of these activities will take your mind off of yourself and your problems. This is a key step in feeling happy again.

Eat a healthy Meal

Food makes people feel happy. Do not misunderstand me. I am not telling you to eat every time you feel sad and unhappy. However, eating a good meal, not junk food, will make you feel happier and more relaxed.

Eating junk food might give you a good feeling for a moment or two, but then guilty conscience might start bothering you for eating it. On the other hand, a good a nourishing meal would relax your mind and negative feelings, without any guilty conscience.

Find the silver lining, it is ALWAYS there. Where there is stormy weather, there is likely a rainbow. Whatever sad experiences you endure in life, there is always something to take and learn from it.

It might not always be readily available, and sometimes you must seek it out. But, in every bad situation, there is always a lesson. It just takes some training to recognize it and learn from it.

Final thoughts

There isn’t a one size fits all solution to the feeling of sadness. With mindful awareness, however, you can easily detect the triggers that bring sadness to your life and quash them before they ruin you. The bottom line is to always focus your attention on you and to cultivate your desired positive qualities all the time. Happiness will come naturally to you.