In life, there are many ups and downs.
We all experience emotionally driven rollercoasters in our lifetimes, whether they're breakups, deaths, losses of friendship or just a plain rejection.
These times are always tough, and they often test our strengths. But why do we pretend everything's okay? Why do we fake our own happiness?
Many factors come into the equation when we first discover the happiness we show the world is a sham.
How long have you been unhappy? What caused it in the first place?
To fully comprehend all of these questions, the signs and symptoms of false happiness must be investigated.
1. Staying positive doesn’t mean you’re happy.
If you’re going about your day — working, studying or doing whatever you do — with a positive attitude, it's wrong to expect joy and happiness to stem from that. Just because you're positive, it doesn't mean you're truly happy.
Sometimes, to really appreciate and understand happiness, one must first experience and comprehend sadness. You have to dig deeper and actually endure pain and suffering to find happiness within yourself.
That way, you'll be able to recognize and contrast your own range of emotions.
2. You’re happy just to spite others.
You act like nothing gets to you. You wear a fake smile so others will be annoyed and jealous of the sight of your happiness.
What is the actual point of this? What do we gain if we put on a show for others?
If anything, this just reflects a deficit of our happiness. We’re a stock that’s just waiting to crash.
Happiness is not sparked or given to us by others. Rather, it is found within ourselves.
We shouldn’t pretend to be happy just because it will negatively affect another person. Happiness begins and ends with you.
3. You push yourself away from loved ones.
The more you deny the fact you aren’t truly happy, the more you begin to distance yourself from your close friends and family.
You lock yourself away, you go into hibernation and you stay completely alone because you can’t bear the sight of their happiness. You’re left wondering what they did to become so happy, and what you should be doing to become happy.
You compare yourself to them.
But you need to remember happiness is not a game of who has more. It's something that stems from our true, inner beings.
Happiness is not a competition, and it is not a race.
4. You live in the past.
It’s easy to get caught up in the past, but it isn’t doing you any favors in the present. You forfeit your happiness by shifting your energies into things that have already happened.
You’re constantly reopening a wound, only to further infect it. It sounds extremely clichéd, but you have to let go of your past for a true chance at happiness.
Forget the past, and shift your happiness toward the present.
5. You struggle with independence.
It’s easy to come across as confident and well-spoken in a group of friends, but what if you’re just by yourself?
Independence is a very hard thing to gain, and it’s sometimes even more challenging to maintain. However, when we struggle to find our independence, we struggle to stay content on our own.
Gaining independence is the ultimate form of achieving self-satisfaction. Independence is a fundamental prerequisite to unlocking true happiness.
Without this, we can never be content with ourselves.
