I found a very interesting approach to dealing with life’s unavoidable downs in Seth Godin’s Understanding Local max. Granted, his article addresses business and marketing issues but it remains quite on target when applied to more generic issues like luck and happiness. In other words, life.
He says: "The problem is that to get to [let’s call this one the top], you need to go through step [let’s call that one the bottom], which is a horrible and scary place to be."
How very true. Until, maybe, one wakes up to the reality of waves.