a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by mike
mike  ·  3207 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Smile!

Well, smiling can make you happy even if your aren't feeling it when you start smiling. I have often used, and do occasionally still use this technique when I'm feeling down. Force a smile. Hold it. Feel cynical about it, doesn't matter. (I used to repeat sarcastically: "Nothing bad ever happens to me" while I waited.) After a minute or two, the smile begins to change from a forced smile to a real smile. And then you're feeling good.

Brain and body -- it's a two-way street. So yeah, go ahead and smile. You'll be happier for it!





user-inactivated  ·  3207 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sure. After two decades of faking it to no avail, people're gonna tell me to fake it some more. Maybe I just didn't hold the grin long enough or something.

If short-term joy is your definition of happiness - sure, go for it. Not sure if it fixes the heap of unaddressed problems one's sure to accumulate by not pretending to be... "happy".

mike  ·  3207 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Sorry, not my intent to tell you to just fake it. I'm just sharing something I find interesting about the mind-body connection. Obviously it's not what you wanted to hear now. Unhappiness sucks.