What’s the goal?
If your goal is to “be happy” then you may have a problem, at least I did. When I struggled to “be happy” life was, well, all about me lol, and THAT was a problem. It was a problem of focus. I was constantly focused on myself and how I felt.
Of course if a person feels miserable they will naturally try their best to feel better. A problem can develop when an individual’s misery becomes an obsession and the goal of feeling better becomes a preoccupation. It’s almost like the struggle to feel better contributes to feeling bad... which increases the struggle to feel better etc.
It’s like Chinese handcuffs. Remember those tubes of straw that you would sometimes be handed at a carnival? You put a finger from one hand in one end and a finger from the other hand in the other end. When you attempt to pull a finger out, the woven straw tube clamps down on both fingers making it impossible to remove them from the tube. The answer is to do the opposite of what seems correct. You need to push your fingers together before you can find a way to pull them out of the tube.
It was the same for me with the goal of “feeling good”. I needed to give up this goal in order to get off the merry-go-round and get on with life. For me, the answer was in attempting to live a “principled existence”. I need to do what is right, regardless of the consequences for me personally (this is often the opposite of what my instincts tell me to do). The best method I have found is to help someone anonymously, to find a situation where even a "thank you" is not possible. It helps takes my focus off myself.
My life is now more about finding meaning. "Feeling good" is a much less important by- product.
Good luck with the handcuffs.