Faking Happiness Won't Ease Your Pain
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Health and Wellness

Faking Happiness Won't Ease Your Pain

It’s OK not to be happy.

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Faking Happiness Won't Ease Your Pain
Kelsey Radigan

I love being happy. I am at my best when I’m positive and confident and full of jovial life.

Some days, you’re just not feeling it. Other days, you cannot even remember what happiness feels like. When you’re in a dark place so low, and the sadness you feel is so wretched, it’s hard to go about daily life with normal emotions.

It’s extremely common to put on a brave face and be fake happy.

Being fake happy is pretty self-explanatory—those who smile through the pain and appear to be happy on the outside, no matter how much they’re hurting on the inside.

This is something that many people struggle with every day. It’s about putting on a show for other people and then breaking down quietly on your own. It’s not good to keep all those negative emotions to yourself.

I can tell you right now—faking happiness doesn’t help you get better.

I’m not saying that you can’t put yourself out there and try to be happy. When you’re in suffering, genuine happiness is so different than the empty chamber of a forced smile.

It’s OK to try your best to smile even when you don’t want to in certain situations, but when it becomes a part of your daily routine, it morphs into a horrible habit. If you need to exert all your energy just trying to seem OK, then clearly, you’re not.

You need to be real and true to yourself and feel your emotions as they happen. Otherwise, you’re in denial of the help you need, and that is incredibly draining.

It’s OK to feel sad, and you’re allowed to feel alone or depressed. Just know that there will always be people to comfort you and help you through a tough situation.

Feeling empty or like there’s a dark cloud over your head isn’t enjoyable, but it’s important to embrace those emotions and be aware of exactly what you’re feeling, and what your body needs.

We have this idea in our heads that happiness is the only emotion we are allowed to feel. Why is it that we think we must hide all our negative emotions from the rest of society?

All emotions are genuine—feel them!

Happiness is certainly the most agreeable emotion, but if you use it to lock away all other emotions, they build up inside and eventually explode to the point where you feel overwhelmed by every horrible feeling all at once—we all know what that’s like.

If you’re not OK, give yourself time to feel whatever it is you need to feel. Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to be this glossed-over version of a human being.

It’s OK not to be happy.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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