We live in a world where having a bad day, crying at work, not being miss sunshine, not smiling at every person that walks past you, is not acceptable. They want you to look in the mirror and tell yourself you’re fine, my life is fine, everything is fine. Well guess what, there are days where things aren’t fine.
We are allowed to have a bad day once in a while. But society puts all this pressure on us to suck it up camper and put on happy face no matter what we are feeling inside. The picture of a perfect life is unattainable and the sooner we realize this, the less judgment we will project on ourselves.
Now this is not to say that you have the right to live in a constant state of, “my life sucks.” However, when you have that off day, or off moment, be ok with it. Allow yourself to feel what you need to feel, instead of ignoring it. We all know shoving those feelings, out of sight out of mind, only works for so long. It turns you into a pressure cooker that will eventually end in an explosion. Something small, the straw that breaks the camel’s back. We’ve all done it, your husband leaves his dirty socks on the floor and you turn it into World War III.
As the old quote goes, “to thine own self be true.” Life’s challenges, those tough days, allows us to learn what isn’t working in our lives and make room for change. Often this is more valuable than experiencing those perfect blissful days. Happiness often comes from solving problems. If you are avoiding your problems and plastering that fake smile on your face, the result is you’re going to make yourself miserable.
From personal experience, I have often led my life with, “I’ve got it all together.” Creating an illusion of perfection that I want people to see. And let me tell you it is exhausting and is only a temporary state. The illusion eventually cracks. I’m writing about this today, because this is something that I need to work on. There I said it, “I’m not perfect.” That wasn’t so hard.
We all have room for improvement, and maybe that is as simple as being more gentle with ourselves. Embrace the imperfect you and explore and experience all the ups and downs.
“Life’s tough, get a helmet.”
~Jennifer anniston