Happiness during difficult times often emerges from surprisingly simple sources that many people overlook. Experts in psychology and wellness reveal that everyday activities like cooking, gardening, and unplugged walks can provide genuine relief and perspective when life feels overwhelming. These nine practical approaches offer concrete ways to reconnect with joy, backed by insights from professionals who understand what actually helps people through tough periods.
- Grow Herbs to Heal Your Spirit
- Help Teammates to Regain Perspective
- Take Unplugged Walks for Present Peace
- Make Space for Playful Experiments
- Bake Bread for Quiet Relief
- Notice Subtle Proof of Impact
- Seek Solid Ground Through Community
- Cook Small Meals to Restore Purpose
- Choose Repetition to Steady Uncertain Days
Grow Herbs to Heal Your Spirit
During one of my most difficult periods, I unexpectedly found happiness through daily gardening. While struggling with my autoimmune flare-ups, I started growing herbs in small pots—just basil and mint at first. There was something profoundly healing about nurturing these plants, watching them respond to care, and eventually harvesting them for cooking. This experience taught me that joy often hides in simple, sensory moments that connect us to something larger than our problems—whether it’s soil under fingernails, the scent of crushed herbs, or the satisfaction of creating something living when everything else feels stagnant.
Livia Esterhazy, Owner, The Thrive Collective
Help Teammates to Regain Perspective
A few years back, we were going through this absolutely brutal pivot. Everything felt incredibly heavy. But I found this unexpected spark of joy in my one-on-one sessions with our junior engineers. Most leaders dump those “non-essential” meetings the second the pressure mounts, but I did the exact opposite. I realized that while my own high-stakes problems were abstract and exhausting, helping a team member clear a specific technical hurdle gave me a sense of tangible progress I desperately needed.
That experience taught me something big: joy is usually a byproduct of contribution, not personal achievement. In the founder world, we’re conditioned to chase milestones, but those are fleeting. Real, sustainable happiness comes from the perspective shift you get when you focus on someone else’s growth. It acts like a circuit breaker for stress. After 20 years of scaling teams, we’ve seen that leaders who prioritize these human connections during a crisis maintain much higher levels of mental clarity. The science backs this up, too. Research from the Association for Psychological Science shows that prosocial behavior—basically just helping others—is a massive tool for mitigating the impact of daily stress on your emotional health.
It’s so easy to get lost in the messy middle of a crisis where every single decision feels like it carries the weight of the world. Shifting your focus to a smaller, solvable problem for someone else reminds you that you still have agency. It grounds you. It reminds you that your value isn’t just tied to the bottom line—it’s tied to the people you’re leading.
Kuldeep Kundal, Founder & CEO, CISIN
Take Unplugged Walks for Present Peace
During one particularly stressful period in my life, when work uncertainty and personal pressure felt overwhelming, I discovered an unexpected source of happiness in something very small and ordinary. Every evening, I began taking a slow walk without my phone.
At first, it was just to clear my head, but gradually it became the calmest part of my day.
I started noticing simple details, like children playing, street vendors closing shops, evening light changing colors, and distant conversations blending into background noise. None of these moments were dramatic, but they felt grounding. When everything inside felt heavy, the outside world kept moving normally, and that gave me quiet comfort.
What surprised me most was how powerful routine simplicity became. I did not need achievements, recognition, or solutions in that moment. I needed presence. Those walks reminded me that joy does not always come from progress. Sometimes it comes from pause.
This experience taught me that happiness during difficult periods rarely arrives in big events. It hides in small, consistent rituals. When expectations reduce, awareness increases. I realised that the mind often searches for relief in future outcomes, while peace is available in the present moment.
It also taught me that control is limited, but attention is not. Even when circumstances felt uncertain, I could choose what to focus on. Observing everyday life shifted my perspective from pressure to gratitude.
That simple habit changed how I define joy. It is not always excitement or celebration. Sometimes it is steadiness. During challenging times, I learned that ordinary moments can quietly rebuild strength if we slow down enough to notice them.
Himanshu Soni, Product Manager, CBD North
Make Space for Playful Experiments
The market crash of 2024 caused our e-commerce revenue to drop by 60%. I found unexpected happiness in morning sketchbooking. My daily routine included 15 minutes of wild ad idea doodling with coffee and without any screens. The space gave me complete freedom without any performance standards or work pressures.
The “useless” scribbles started as a stress management tool for coping with the crash but they evolved into our most profitable 2025 campaign which generated $2M in revenue. This experience completely transformed my leadership style. I discovered that happiness exists in playful activities rather than in work. I dedicate time to unstructured things which I do every day. The process relieves my stress while it restores the creative energy which I require to handle major challenges. I discovered that people achieve better results when they stop worrying about their goals.
Dhari Alabdulhadi, CTO and Founder, Ubuy Peru
Bake Bread for Quiet Relief
I started baking bread during one of the hardest years I’ve had. Sounds cliche now, but kneading dough for twenty minutes became the only time my brain actually shut up.
What surprised me was how much I needed something with zero stakes. No deadlines, no performance metrics, no one judging the outcome. Just flour, water, and whether it rose or didn’t.
The loaves were terrible at first. Didn’t matter. I kept going because the process felt good, not because I needed perfect results.
That taught me joy doesn’t always come from achievement or fixing what’s broken. Sometimes it’s just doing something with your hands that has nothing to do with anything else. No deeper meaning required.
Nirmal Gyanwali, Founder & CEO, WP Creative USA
Notice Subtle Proof of Impact
During one of the most mentally demanding periods of building Eprezto, an unexpected source of happiness came from the smallest customer moments, a simple message saying, “Thank you, this was easier than I expected.”
When you’re under pressure, you think joy will come from big wins or milestones, but what surprised me is that it often comes from quiet proof that your work is helping someone. It taught me that joy isn’t something you postpone until things are calm, it’s something you notice in the middle of the chaos, through meaning, not comfort.
Louis Ducruet, Founder and CEO, Eprezto
Seek Solid Ground Through Community
One unexpected source of happiness for me came during a really challenging time when I was separated. Almost by accident, I found myself going to church, something I’d never really done before and honestly never thought would be my thing. What surprised me wasn’t just the faith aspect, but the sense of calm and grounding it gave me during a period that otherwise felt pretty chaotic.
That experience taught me that joy doesn’t always show up where you expect it to. Sometimes it comes from trying something unfamiliar or leaning into structure and community when life feels unsteady. I learned that happiness isn’t always about fixing everything at once, sometimes it’s about finding one place that helps you breathe a little easier and letting that be enough for now.
Jeff Michael, Ecommerce Business Owner, Capitol Nutrition Supplements
Cook Small Meals to Restore Purpose
During a particularly challenging period, I found an unexpected source of happiness in sticking to small daily routines—especially preparing simple, nourishing meals at the end of long days. At NYC Meal Prep, that experience reminded me that joy doesn’t always come from big wins; it often shows up in consistency, care, and the feeling of taking care of yourself and others. It taught me that even in stressful seasons, creating something comforting and meaningful can ground you and quietly restore your sense of purpose.
Keagan Stapley, Owner, NYC Meal Prep
Choose Repetition to Steady Uncertain Days
Another defining moment that left me happy out of the blue occurred in a very trying period where the work was overwhelming and I experienced a feeling of uncertainty all the time, when something very small and mundane brought me joy. I regained my routine of waking up in the morning and walking the same short path before opening my laptop. No interviews, no telephone calls—just fifteen minutes in the open air. Initially it was counterproductive. With time it became grounding. The repetition brought about a feeling of stability at a time when all of it was moving. It was reassuring to see the same trees, the same neighbors going to work, the same change in the light with the change in the seasons. It made me remember that changes do not necessarily appear dramatic. There are times when it appears as a presence on all occasions.
It was also the time when I noticed a change in my views on digital tools. I preferred to lean on simplicity rather than seek complexity. I even used Freeqrcode.ai to create a small personal QR code which connected to a personal thank you note that I updated every week. It was turned into a ritual to scan it because it was a fast reminder of the easy-to-have win moments. The experience has taught me that happiness does not come as a revelation moment. It forms silently in terms of structure, interiorization and little compasses enabling you to view what has already taken shape.
Melissa Basmayor, Marketing Coordinator, Freeqrcode.ai