Sounds great, doesn't it? Being able to just choose when you can smile genuinely? It's something I wish was more "doable", and strangely, as much as it seems like an impossible concept, I believe in it. I really do think that we, as individual people, can choose to be happy.
To be frank, I don't mean just a slight comment you make to yourself when something goes wrong. I doubt saying "Nothing's wrong" to yourself when clearly there is something wrong will help anyone. We cannot be happy all the time, that is the way of life, everything has to be perfectly balanced. Without sadness happiness wouldn't exist, nobody would know that they are happy if they were never sad once, and they will not know that they are unhappy if they were not happy once in their life. Both are necessary, they have their benefits. A peculiar opinion I hold is that sadness is not necessarily a bad thing. In my personal experience, the unhappiest moments of my life made the better, it drove me to never reach that point again, thus canceling out the possibility of me being stuck in that unhappy position a second time. I suppose that means, in a sense that unhappiness is a path to happiness, if you take that sadness and turn it into a motive to be happy later on, then you've effectively turned a situation that would have ruined your entire mindset about life into one that made you into a better and happier person.
How does one go about it? It's really interesting, I mean imagine the amount of hassle you would save if you could instantly change your bad mood to a good one. This brings us to the topic of perspective, even if we cannot change our emotion, we can still try to change our perspective. It is much easier than trying to simply convert depression into joy because it changes with every situation. Happiness and sadness, no matter what the circumstances, will more or less remain the same, only the intensity of the emotion will change. Your perspective of the situation, however, is bound to change each time, the initial image you have of a certain situation will most likely never be the same because each time will be a different cause and effect. Age also factors in, a perspective you had of a scenario when you were younger might seem a strange perspective to have once you get older, this relates directly to experience, the more you go through in life, the better you get at handling the situations and the better you get at changing your perspective to a more optimistic one.
Optimism, now that's a nice word that most people really seem to hate. The general issue that people have with being optimistic is the level of realism in that hope we hold within ourselves. Yes, it is sometimes unrealistic, sometimes optimism relies on an extreme amount of hope in one's own capability, but if not, then what marks it different from everything else? Too much of anything is bad of course, but you need a certain level of self-confidence and belief to make it work. From personal experience and what I've heard from friends, colleagues, and teachers, having a good amount of self-belief when going into and out of any situation drastically changes the result of the said situation. Always have hope, change your perspective to an optimistic one, it might be difficult at first, but try, and soon you'll find yourself looking at everyday problems, and even large events in life in an extremely different way. You'll start to notice that you're not as unhappy about the problem anymore, because now, instead of seeing it as a massive problem that will ruin everything you've built, you'll think of it, you'll understand what it can do and what it has done, but you'll also start seeing the possibilities to grow and become better. Small things will no longer bother you, optimism, put in simple terms is choosing to see the bigger picture when small detials are put together. I won't lie, I personally think pessimism is narrow-minded, seeing something for only its negativity is a poor way to solve problems, to grow and understand a situation for what it could be rather than what it is.
Now that I've mentioned it, why not talk about it? Seeing a situation for what it can be, this is something that has helped me a lot throughout these last few years. Usually, what gets to us the most is what has already happened, we fret over it and tend to cause even more problems for ourselves. Don't get me wrong, seeing a situation for its initial impact is necessary, obviously, we would need to assess what actually happened before moving forward, but the problem arises when someone chooses to dwell on that initial impact, the problems it caused, for too long. They become unable to see what happens next because they are so stuck on the belief that it will not get better. This is why we need to choose to see a situation for what it can be, we need to start looking at a problem in our lives and see how it can change rather than constantly worrying about what it has already done. What is gone is gone, but we can change what happens next, believe that it will get better, and it surely will.
Humans do not get enough credit for their strength. We are very strong, all of us, and when we choose to see it and believe in that strength, we become truly unstoppable. Do not give in to problems in life, they will come, again and again, but each time you choose to get back up and keep moving, you will get better, until life has nothing to throw at you anymore, and you will have shown the world that perseverance and patience is key to achieving everything, including happiness. Choose to smile when others can't, choose to trust in those close to you, choose to change your perspective about a situation, choose to be optimistic. Choose to be you. You are unique, you've been told a million times by everyone since you were an infant, that you are the only you in this world, so start believing it, do not fret to belong in a crowd, to follow the norm, to be accepted. Create your own spark, glow brighter than the rest, show the world that you will not give in, hold the fire of hope close to you and grow...
That was a long one, I hope you guys enjoyed reading and perhaps some of you had a change of heart about the world? As always, stay strong.
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