Does acting happy make you happy?
Many people say that you need to fake it till you make it. That if you act happy, eventually you will become happy and don’t have to pretend anymore. And it’s true, to a certain extent. If you are sad and you listen to songs that reflect your current mood, they will make you feel even more down. But if you chose to pick songs that are on a higher vibration, then after some time, your mood will shift.
Acting happy can only make you happy if you want to be happy in the first place. If you don’t want to get any better, then acting happy will not only not make you happy, it will make you sad and distance you from your friends, family and loved ones.
It’s similar when it comes to happiness. The more you act happy, the more you believe it’s true. Smiling, for example, can help fight depression and general sadness. When someone smiles at you, you automatically smile back. Again, the key is in consistency: the more people smile at you and the more people you smile at, the easier it will become.
However, you need to be really careful that while you act happy, you don’t suppress your true emotions. You don’t need to convince yourself that you are actually happy when you aren’t. That’s not how this should work, otherwise the answer will be no to your question. If you only pretend to be happy so that other people won’t worry about you, then you aren’t walking the right path towards real happiness.
They will think everything is okay with you, when truly that couldn’t be further from the truth. There is a fine line between acting happy in order to raise your vibrations and eventually make you happier, and when you act happy for others. There needs to be a time when you feel all your emotions, and then and only then can you proceed to the next step.
Does smiling make you happy?
Smiling actually makes you happier. Of course, it takes time and practice. Your first smile might even look like a growl, but that’s okay. You are doing this for yourself, and not for anyone else. It will help others, too, unless you are practicing in front of the mirror and nobody sees your smile.
When you smile, you release certain hormones in your body, which then trick you into feeling better. It’s not entirely a trick though, as your vibrations rise and you will actually be happier.
Not to mention that if you smile at someone and they smile back at you, you have created a chain reaction that will then be passed on to the next person. Making others happy also helps increase your own feeling of happiness.
Again, we need to be clear that your problems won’t go away just because you are smiling or acting happy. Whatever made you feel sad or upset or depressed in the first place is still there, and probably needs to be sorted. But your happiness highly depends on the way you look at things, too. Someone must have told you along the way that how you feel depends on the way you think, way more than on the way things are going around you.
Acting happy for the sake of others
Acting happy to make others happy can go both ways. If you are doing it, so that you can be happier yourself, then it’s a lovely gesture that can help both of you. For a little while you will focus on the other person’s issues and mental health, which will push your own issues to the side. Again, this is both a good and a bad thing. Balance is key here, too. You don’t want to suppress your emotions entirely, but taking your mind off them can mean a breath of fresh air and a step towards recovery. You might find that the less you focus on feelings of sadness, the less it will pop into your mind and heart.
But if you are doing it to hide your true feelings and make sure others don’t worry about you, that will cause the opposite effect. You won’t have anyone to talk to about your problems, because they will all think that things are fine. Or, if they know you well enough to notice that you are hiding something and push for answers, you could shut them out completely.
Certain people in your close circle might expect you to act happy all the time, even if you aren’t. Unfortunately not everyone understands the emotions we are going through, and in some families, talking about one’s feelings is a taboo. This seems to be the case especially for men, because, even to this day, they are forced by society to act strong and masculine.
You need to understand that whatever your circumstances, and whatever your problems are, there are always people you can talk to. Even if it is over the phone or anonymously, communication is always among the first steps towards happiness. If you always act happy without telling anyone how sad and upset you are, you might believe it yourself eventually, but deep down, nothing changes. If you want to live a happy life, you need to tell at least someone you trust.
The bottom line is that yes, acting happy can make you truly happy, but only paired with other techniques. It needs to be done like a diet. If you think about it, when you go on a diet, you know exactly why you have to eat that celery stick instead of the more delicious chocolate cake. The same goes for pretending to be happy. You do it for a reason, but if that reason isn’t to actually be happier, then, just like the diet, happiness won’t stick, either.
I am jealous of other people’s happiness
Quite often we find that if we are unhappy, we are unable to act happy. After a break up, all we see is couples kissing on the street. This makes us feel said, even jealous of their happiness. We so often ask ourselves what the other person did to deserve to be happy, while we can’t even act happy?
The problem with this is that we judge someone without knowing their circumstances. How can we be certain that these people aren’t simply acting happy, when behind closed doors their story changes? How do we know that they didn’t go through the same issues a month, a year ago? Just because they are at a different stage in their life, doesn’t mean that we need to rush to get to the same place. It’s impossible anyway.
Everyone has their own journey. Some people get married at the age of 20, only to divorce before they are 30, while others don’t marry till much later and live a happy, fulfilled life. Everyone has a story, but you need to focus on your own. Instead of being jealous of someone else’s happiness, you need to create your own.
Jealousy is a negative emotion that doesn’t hurt anyone, but you. What you need to understand is when it comes to your own happiness, the more positive thoughts you have, the easier it is for the universe to provide you with more opportunities to feel happy. How do you know that the universe didn’t bring those couples your way, not out of spitefulness, but to show you that don’t worry, this will be yours sooner than you think?
But you reject it, because you focus on the negative. And true, when someone isn’t happy, it’s extremely difficult to shift their attitude and the way they think. And this is when the famous ‘fake it till you make it’ saying comes into play. Start with a tony act of kindness towards others and yourself. Stroke a puppy. Smell a rose. Watch a sunset. Find a new hobby. Excitement is part of happiness, so as long as you find a tiny particle of it within and shift your focus towards it, then you won’t feel the need to be jealous of others anymore.
I want to go back to a time I was happy
Even while we are acting happy, it often makes us want to go back in time and relive a moment when we were truly happy. Some therapists actually use this technique to help you get over depression. But with everything else, if you don’t do it in moderation, it can cause more harm than sadness itself.
If you think about those movies where the main character time travels and realizes that they have a choice to make, whether to stay in the past, where everything was nearly perfect, or go back to their miserable present, well… The choice seems obvious, right?
It’s the same when it comes to our minds. Our minds create our universe, and sadly, if we aren’t careful enough, we can be tricked into ‘escaping’ into the past. If you recall those moments and learn from them, examine them and see what made you happy and decide how you could recreate that happiness for yourself in the present, that’s a healthy way towards becoming happy.
But if you keep going back to those memories for the sake of having a kick out of it, and you don’t attempt to be happy in real life, then that can soon create an addiction, and even a sort of prison in your mind.
All in all, wanting to turn back time to a happier era is a natural instinct. Even acting on it is a natural part of your recovery. But getting stuck in a past memory that isn’t real anymore isn’t natural. It might take time and it might take a lot of effort, but you will need to let that memory be that: only a memory and not a goal.
Raising your vibrations
If you truly want to become happy, it doesn’t mean that by acting happy, your problems will magically disappear. Far from it. Your problems might be things you can’t change, and they might stay with you from now on. There are certain things we can’t fix, because they are a natural part of life, no matter how sad or upsetting. So many things are out of our control.
The good news is that the one thing we can control is the way we react to the things that are happening around us. If we believe that everything happens for a reason, and that it’s not up to us what happens, but how we deal with it is, then acceptance and the ability to move on will soon present themselves.
When you are sad, you can do two things: you can either stay on the same vibration (like we said earlier, keep listening to sad songs, bringing you even more sadness), or you can make the decision to feel better, no matter what. Of course, normally there will be a few stages you have to go through before this happens. Things will be worse before they can be better. You will hit a low, and when you feel like enough is enough, that’s when the shift will begin.
When you get to the point where you want to be happy, then faking it will be easier. You will have a goal in mind. You might have started out acting happy, because you were embarrassed of your true feelings. But now you are past that, and you want to feel happy. And that’s a good thing! Remember that whatever you are going through right now, you deserve to be happy.
Soon, smiling will come more and more naturally, and your vibrations will change. You might ask why you need a higher vibration? It’s simple. We are higher beings, trapped in a human form – but that’s temporary and physical. On the astral realm, your aura shines brighter than you realise, and it reaches far beyond your physical body.
Your mind can truly move mountains, and whatever you do, affects other people as well. Have you noticed how when you are sad, others take on your sadness? The same goes for when you are happy. Imagine a world where everyone was smiling. The idea feels good, right?
