Honestly, “fake it till you make it” has always made me a little uncomfortable. Fake it? But…*squirm*…that feels…icky.

Anything short of authenticity makes me start to shift in my seat a bit. But when you put research behind how faking it can help us in the long run, it makes it hard for me to ignore. So let’s upgrade that phrase a little bit- not just to make it through, but to shake it off & shake your stuff.

Take gratitude for example. When you practice it, even if you don’t feel it, you will eventually start feeling it. Even if it feels kind of icky and inauthentic in the beginning, that feeling is temporary. Eventually, you will feel it without that extra effort. You won’t need to try so hard.

This same concept works with other things in our lives, like happiness. You can actually trick yourself into feeling happier by smiling! That muscle movement sends cues to your brain that you’re feeling happy, and, ta-da! Happier.

So let’s put this into action. Try an experiment. Each night for two weeks, keep a gratitude journal. This is the easiest journal to keep, because really it’s just a list! Make a list of 5 things for which you were grateful that day. They don’t have to be glowing- honestly, they might start out as “my dog didn’t pee on the carpet today” or “I caught the food truck before it pulled away”. Gratitude takes practice. Have fun with it and laugh at yourself. Just see what happens. At the end of two weeks, let me know what you discovered!