Turn the frown upside down

One smile will spread to others. Add a silly hat and smiles will spread like something super spreadable.

With finals just around the corner, I've been seeing and hearing a lot of depressing statements. Usually I would ignore this just like every other year, but this year is a little different. This year I've been seeing these types of things (on Facebook) more from people who aren't in school more than people who are in school. I've been hearing these statements for a long time with no looming exams to initiate them. I've decided I want to share my opinion on these pessimistic and depressing statements.

I've never understood pessimists. I've never understood how you can live your life always looking at the bad side of things. I don't understand how you can enjoy life that way. Perhaps I'm missing something. I'm not saying that nothing bad will ever happen. I'm simply saying it's not as bad as you think. I have a theory that whatever you think will happen will end up happening. If you think you'll fail a test then you'll fail it, even if the score you got is higher than the score you were expecting. You'll still see it as failure because you've convinced yourself that you cannot pass. If you go into a relationship thinking it's going to end, it will. Not because either of you is a horrible person, but because you cannot put sufficient effort into something that you don't see working. (I usually say why start in the first place when I don't think it's going to work, but maybe I'm just weird.)

I also don't understand perpetual down-putting of yourself or complaining about your life. If your life is so bad, why not change it? You have control over your life. No one else can control it for you. I suggest finding the thing in your life that is causing your issues and find a way to fix it. This might not be particularly easy, but it's not impossible. If you hate that you have a lot of debt, stop spending money you don't have. Get a second job so you can pay off the debt you do have. If you don't like where you live, move. If your friends depress you, get new friends.

If you suffer from putting yourself down, just stop. People always tell me that it's not that simple, but I'm living proof that it is. For those of you that are religious, let's have a moment here. God does not put bad thoughts about yourself in your head. God loves you, no matter who you are or what you've done. Satan puts those thoughts in your head. Satan hates you. He's miserable and wants you to be miserable like him. Luckily, you have one thing that Satan does not have. You have a body. Everyone with a body inherently has power over those without a body. Do you realize what that means? That means that you can tell Satan to get out of your head and he has to obey you. That doesn't mean he's gone forever, but, you can pray to God and ask him for help and Satan will stay away longer. It's great.

If you are not religious, then that last bit probably sounded super weird and superstitious to you. I'm not sure how to battle self-esteem issues and not be religious about it, since I am religious, but I think there are some things that can transfer over. If you think ill of yourself, you can push those thoughts from your head. Be stubborn about it and don't let them back in. Every time you think ill of yourself, think two good thoughts about yourself. I was told once that this leads to more bad thoughts, but, seriously, just stop. All you need are two good thoughts. Unless you have some type of preexisting mental health issue, you should be able to control your thoughts. Start this early and your thoughts won't lead to a mental health issue later. (Note: I am fully aware that there are several types of mental health issues that are completely out of your control. I am simply talking about mental health issues that are in your control. Many self-esteem issues are initially in your control.)

I want to issue a challenge to anyone reading this that suffers from perpetual pessimism and general depressingness (like my word? I do). For the next week, don't think about how things can go bad. If you are convinced that something will go bad, just admit that it's out of your control and try your hardest to keep it from being super bad. Push bad thoughts from your mind and replace them with good ones. Lastly, but not even nearly leastly, smile. Every time you feel like the world is going collapse in on you and your life sucks and you hate everything, just smile. My mom used to tell us to flex our smile muscles when we insisted that we were so mad that we can't smile. So, flex those smile muscles and keep flexing them. Something happens in your body and you'll soon not be so mad and depressing. Others will want to be around you more and you'll just feel generally good about yourself. So do it, for just a week, and see if it works. I can promise you, if you really try, it will work.