Spread cheer and make life better!

Nowadays you can see yourself and even people around you overwhelmed with reasons to be anxious and angry about issues big or small. There is so much suffering in the world and it seems that Covid-19 pandemic has made this clear to even the most oblivious among us.

I believe that we are all familiar with what some people are doing — smiling outwardly but crying inside. A happy disposition might lead to greater well-being. In turn, being forced to act happily can have serious consequences, from depression to cardiovascular disease. The implications are fairly straightforward: act the way you want to, but don’t ask others to act the way you want them to be.

You see the opposite of that very often; some people may act like crying, but laugh inside, which may have some limited benefits. It is true that displaying negative emotions such as sadness and anger can help us gain more empathy from others and even make us more attractive. But it certainly won’t make us happier.

However, what I would like to emphasis is that, there are two remarkable issues regarding this. You may agree with me that unhappy behaviour leads to real unhappiness. Hence, when you describe yourself as depressed it can lead you to think negatively about yourself and suffer from depression. Likewise, acting angrily can make you even angrier. Second, being unhappy, angry, or depressed about the problems of the world will not make it any better. Conversely, research has long found that our facial expressions and emotions, including negativity, are highly contagious.

So, for instance, if you find yourself chronically angry or constantly complaining about the people around you, you may actually be unhappy about aspects of your life. If so, work on understanding your feelings by sitting down with them. If you believe there is an opportunity to improve things through social change, you are more likely to achieve such a goal in life if you are motivated. The point is not that you have to pretend that the status is okay, but that optimism about positive change is the best way to make people join you in that changes.

Showing joy in our hearts and sharing it with others will improve our lives. And if the life conditions around you have really pushed you into the worse climate, remember that finding and spreading joy in an imperfect world will make life better for you.

Dr Yousuf Ali al Mulla, MD, Ministry of Health, is a medical innovator and educator. For any queries regarding the content of the column he can be contacted at: dryusufalmulla@gmail.com