It is hard to be happy around unhappy people. This is made worse if you are in fact attached to those of such unhappiness. It is natural to both feel responsible for their sadness and responsible for relieving them of that sadness. This is all true if you are me, and I am surrounded by people who are not happy. It impacts me on a daily basis. I would argue that I am not the happiest person I can be under these circumstances. I would also argue that it harder to deal with my own crap when I am in this situation.
Rant over.
The truth is that we can only control so much in our lives. I’ve managed to submarine myself financially and part of this shared unhappiness is a result of that. It goes deeper, of course, but the part I think is important is recognizing that you are where you are and there has to be a opportunity to find and maintain happiness in that space until you can free yourself of it. Drowning in misery doesn’t help anything or anyone in your life. I, personally, am quite bad and desperate in times of misery. It morphs very quickly into anger (often of the righteous variety) and that helps no one as well. I’m learning how to be better and find the light.
Thich Nhat Hang says, “People deal too much with the negative, with what’s wrong. Why not try to see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?” I aim to do that in my existence.