I wrote an earlier post about joy. I shared that I started saying “Good morning,” no matter what time of day it was. I was able to connect that practice to the verse in Psalms that tells us that “joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5) You can read the rest of the post here.
Dan Miller says that if you want to improve your attitude, one thing you can do is walk 25% faster. It reflects outwardly that you care (maybe more than your really do), but it also begins some physiological and chemical reactions that improve your attitude (disclaimer: I am not a doctor or psychologist, and this is only what I’ve heard and observed).
I’m not a huge fan of “fake it till you make it” for the long term but it is a place to start. (Click to Tweet that!) Sometimes just a simple action can start to turn the direction of your thinking. If you start telling people that you’re happy or that you’re joyful, even when you’re not, you’ll start to feel it a little bit. Things will seem a little brighter.
The darkest part of the night is right before sunrise. It is like that many times in our lives, too. The darkest parts of our life are often right before the light breaks through. But, too many people give in to the darkness. They hide themselves and wallow in the darkness.
Instead, look forward in time and see the light trying to peek over the horizon. Try to anticipate the joy that will start to come and chase the weeping away. Focus on the positive things and the negative will seem a little more bearable.
It’s a change in attitude
Even more than verbally saying that you’re happy, this stems from your attitude internally. You can say it all you want, but you also have to want it and believe you can.
If you rely on only faking it, you’ll never make it. The faking can get you facing the right direction, but It’s not the gas to get you going. You need desire, too.
Do you want to be happy? Do you want joy in your life? These may seem to be rhetorical questions, but there are some people that seem to want to be miserable. It seems that they do things to make themselves depressed. Work on changing your attitude and outlook to have joy.