Quodlibet by Franklin Stover

Feeling down in the dumps? Whether it's for reasons beyond your control or for feelings of inadaquacy, it's OK to feel bad. But there is a point when feeling bad can become habitual. You do anything over and over and it becomes a way of life, a way of seeing the world. So, our perceptions of the world are seen through either an opaque or translucent mental filter.

Ever try to fake feeling low by looking depressed? That might sound silly at first, but most of us have done that to gain sympathy or to get people to take us more seriously. And sometimes it works. During those times, we're hoping people will read our body language correctly and will respond in a nurturing way. Unfortunately, the non-verbal world of communication isn't always picked up on, and people sometimes need to articulate what's bugging them.

So if faking our gloomier moods works to get us some attention now and then, does it work to fake happiness? It all goes back to those filters of the mind I mentioned earlier, the filters that say a lot about our attitude. In any discussion about attitude, it's essential to know that you are the owner and author of your attitudes, and as a creative individual, you can choose to see yourself in a different way at any time.

If you're feeling low, first make sure that you're getting enough sleep and that your diet doesn't consist entirely of Big Macs. Once you have that, progress toward personal happiness can be made, even if you have to fake it. That's right. You can fake it, according to a report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In the 10 week study back in 2003, 100 randomly selected university students engaged in outgoing activities that included singing out loud and acting more extroverted. A mix of different personalties were involved that included shy as well as the less shy.

Concluding that the premise of the study works, the lead researcher in the project remarked that happiness is, to some extent, something we can control. However, there are personality attributes and other factors that color our ability to enjoy happiness. But the main thing is, it takes some work.

Some call this type of self-help therapy as “fake it till you feel it,” and while it has its critics, it can lead to an attitude adjustment. Think of the faking-it approach as not an end in itself, but rather a way to jump-start the thing in all of us that wants to be healthy and happy.