Spoiler alert: You’re not supposed to be happy all the time.
It’s ironically sad that the general population believes that we’re supposed to feel happy more than we do, and if we don’t – well, there must be something wrong with us, right?
Wrong. 
Happiness is a feeling that’s supposed to come and go.
Happiness is part of the song of our life, not the entirety, nor the purpose of it.
Let’s think about this in musical terms. A song builds. It goes through lows and lilts, changes in tempo and even key, but it never ends at its climax.
The peak of the crescendo is supposed to be bold and intense, yet its purpose is to yield to a rhythm and melody through which the song can be resolved and come to its conclusion.
Feelings, by nature, are transitory. None of them are intended to be sustained for days on end.
Chasing a feeling of happiness as the standard for our contentment with life precludes us from being content at all.
Because it’s impossible to achieve a sustained state of happiness, we become disillusioned and relegate ourselves to questioning whether something’s wrong with us.
But the truth is this: Pursuing happiness will leave you unhappy.
In fact, you might already be unhappy about being unable to be happy all the time. And you wouldn’t be alone. A Georgia psychologist was quoted as saying, particularly about young people, “We’re in an epidemic of people being unhappy about being unhappy.”
Unhappiness doesn’t result from problems in life. After all, those are pretty much guaranteed and common to every human’s experience.
Unhappiness is, however, the result of false beliefs about happiness, so let’s get clear on happiness.
You aren’t supposed to feel happy all the time. If a song was only filled with fantastic moments, it would be quite boring and certainly lacking in artistic vision.
Don’t confuse happiness and contentment. Happiness is a feeling, not a state of being. It’s supposed to come and go. Contentment, however, is a state of being, one in which, while everything in life isn’t perfect, you are able to grow during the tough times and still enjoy and prosper from the mountain-top ones.
Take note of the things that bring you happiness. Recording the things that bring you happiness might look like journaling about moments that brought a smile to your face during the day. Howe ever you take note of happy moments, do take note. Doing so will prime your brain to look for more happy moments, which will serve as glimpses of hope when life feels dark.
Remember, happiness comes from the highlights of life, not the ordinary moments. And as a human, you need the ordinary far more than the extraordinary.
This is mental health (and music).
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