Many people want to show their pain when they are suffering or in a bad mood, as in, “A sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” But if you project negative emotions and burden others with your pain because it makes it easier on you, this is simply super selfish. What you should do instead, is put a smile on your face and act as if everything’s fine. If you do that, you will find that you really have come out of your down, since when you put on an act, you become what you’re acting.
For example, think of a mother with her baby. Even under the worst circumstances, she will try to look cheerful for her child. And at the moment she does this, she is emotionally with her child and she really is happy. If she has big problems she will probably fall back down later, but at least for that moment, she came out of herself and felt good precisely because she tried to make someone else feel good.
The only cause of suffering is our ego. Once we rise above it, we do not suffer. My teacher, RABASH, used to laugh at himself when he felt down; he was laughing at his own ego. And once he did that, he was no longer down.
[Photo by Jamie Brown on Unsplash]