Throughout the day we all encounter hardships and frustrations. Some days it seems like nothing is going right. The stress starts to pile up and suddenly you lose sight of all of your blessings. It is ok to have days like that! We all do. The key to being a happier person is that you are able to stop, take a minute, and pull yourself out of the negativity that you can find yourself in. Some days it is easier than others, but with practice it is possible to feel this happiness more often than you have before.

When Marin Seligman began studying positive psychology his goal was to focus on happiness. He wanted to know what made people happy and what they could do to feel happy more often. In the past psychology has mostly focused on the negatives. People were most concerned with what was going wrong within a person’s mind. The goal was to find what was “bad” and fix it. Positive psychology takes a different stance. This type of work focuses on what is going right. What makes a person feel their best and why? What can this person incorporate into their life in order to feel their best more of the time? How can this boost their performance at work and strengthen their personal relationships?

Positive psychology is a quickly growing field and there is so much to learn about it. In this article, Five Things Positive Psychology Wants You to Know, Claire Dorotik-Nana, LMFT explains five aspects of positive psychology that are important to consider. These points might help you to understand more about the concept, and to know that there is no right way to go about feeling happy. You are not going to feel good all the time. But exploring the ideas of positive psychology, and practicing them, might just help you appreciate the positive times a little bit more.