SAN DIEGO — It is often a difficult subject to talk about, but finding happiness in yourself and your life is often the most important thing a person can do. Psychologist and author Michaela Johnson says that often setbacks can become setups for happiness.
Johnson gave some specific information for people struggling with finding their happiness.
Regarding finding happiness in an unhappy relationship, she says to speak your truth with grace. There are a lot of ways we avoid conversations out of fear or shame. Ultimately not speaking our truth leads us away from showing up authentically and is where the seeds for resentment and unhappiness grow.
When single people feel they will never find the right person and be happy, Johnson says it is imperative to be ok with yourself first. If you aren't happy flying solo, no one will feel safe getting in a plane with you. Surround yourself with relationships that are fulfilling, they don't have to be sexual in nature.
For people that are lacking confidence, confidence is built from a space of hope. The nature of confidence is that it is built from a space of believing or trusting in a process or even yourself. If you are unable to be happy about something (or yourself), you have to find something to be hopeful about. So, let's say you don't have confidence that you can get that job that you applied for, so you feel unable to get excited or happy about it. Hope could be saying, even if this job doesn't work out, perhaps there's something else that will better align with my goals. From that space you can say, "I'm happy that I gave it a shot and applied, because even within this I'm gaining some positive experience."
Michaela Johnson stopped by Morning Extra to share her story and how she was able to find her happiness.
To purchase any of her books, click here.