Fake It

I have been awake since 4am this morning. An early riser by nature, I went to bed way too early last night and so I decided to get up and be productive. I've already done two loads of laundry, had my coffee, read the newspaper, straightened up the house, planned the weeks menus and made a grocery list, all before 7am. After all that, I sat for a few minutes and read my current book. This line jumped out from the page and really hit me ~ "Smiles can be little contentment generators: when you pretend to feel a few clicks better than you really are, you actually get some small upturn in your mood."
We live in a society that says, "Be real. Be who you are. Be yourself." This is all well and good, however, many people could do with a little dose of what this quote is trying to teach - fake it til you make it. Waiting for life to get easier, for it to get less complicated, for it to be less stressful, for the dark cloud to stop looming over our head only leaves us waiting. Waiting is not living. It is limbo. Limbo sucks as far as I am concerned.
Truth be told, faking it a little actually does make you feel better. It may not last, but it can be a momentary bright spot in an otherwise cloudy day. Using that 1 - 10 scale, whatever number you are feeling today, pretend it is a number or two higher than it really is. Experiment and see if, when you lay your head on the pillow tonight, it did make you feel just a little bit better. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.