Wanna know something I gleaned from my psych degree that always perks me up?

Everything is going to be fine.

Seriously. Even if you're pretty sure that you're going to feel crappy and defeated for the rest of your little life, you're not. Research indicates that regardless of the brevity of a life event - be it positive or negative - individuals regress to their baseline or average state of well-being and contentment over time. In addition, research has shown that humans are also inclined to over-estimate the duration and severity emotional and psychological impact that life events will have. That's right folks, psychologists and academics are telling you that time does in fact heal all wounds.

It's as simple as regression to the mean. In stats, regression toward the mean means that even if a variable is tending toward an extreme at initial assessment, it will tend to grow closer and closer to average on all subsequent assessments. Even if it's just little by little, it gets there over time.

This applies to the stock market, basketball players having a killer game, and even how sad you feel when somebody dumps you.

Even better? You can elevate your baseline level of affect and well-being if you try. You're way more resilient that you think. Check out the Journal of Positive Psychology for some killer research and more food for thought.