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We often hear phrases such as: “Life is all about being happy”, “You just have to be positive” or “Always look on the bright side”. While these sayings usually come with good intentions, they often invalidate other feelings that come from life challenges and inevitable lows. When feeling happy starts to feel like an obligation, we repress our emotions and we dismiss our own pain and emotional experience leading to a negative impact on our mental health and socioemotional well-being.
So no, not only is it not possible nor realistic to feel happy all the time, but it also isn’t healthy to pressure yourself to feel a certain way only because you have learned that that’s the way you should feel. Genuine well-being comes from full acceptance and management of all feelings.
Emotions such as sadness, anger, fear, etc. allow us to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and life’s nuances and to build genuine connections with others. Rather than focusing on making these emotions go away, we should allow them to take space, to validate what we feel without judgement, to support rather than fix and finally to understand happiness as an emotion, not as a permanent goal.
And, if we were only able to experience happiness, then we wouldn’t be able to recognize and appreciate each experience on its own uniqueness. At the end of the day, it is also because of those challenging or painful experiences that we can feel happiness in a more profound and genuine way.
If you constantly feel pressured to feel happy or to push other feelings away, at CAPI, we can work through the different beliefs that might be influencing in the way you process and manage your feelings and support you to build true well-being.
Remember that feeling happy all the time is not the key to a better mental health and well-being but being authentic with what you feel and allowing yourself to go through the process with validation and acceptance.
Psicóloga especializada en el ámbito psicoterap&iecuteutico y educativo, con experiencia en el trabajo con niños y adolescentes.
Egresada de la Licenciatura en Psicología del Centro Universitario Incarnate Word con doble titulación (mexicana y americana).
Actualmente cursa la Especialidad en Psicología y Psicoterapia Infantil en la Asociación Mexicana de Alternativas en Psicología.
Sucursal Benito Juárez