You Should Act The Way You Want To Feel

By Yeshwanth K

Nothing comes before a person’s happiness, and one of the crucial aspects of this is that they should act the way they want to feel.

Actually, most of us (almost everyone) act based on how they feel, but what most people don’t know is that they also feel based on how they act. According to the philosopher and psychologist William James, people assume that action follows after their feelings, whereas both action and emotions happen at the same time. And he adds that people can control their feelings by changing the process of how they act. This theory was stated by James a century ago.

William James is trying to convey that people who want to feel in a particular way should have those emotions within themselves while they act.

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To check the theory, you can even try this on yourself and act the way you want to feel. For example, when you feel sad, but you want to feel happy instead, you can try to act that you are happy. Similarly, whatever the feeling you might be having, you can act the way you want to feel so that you can get that feeling ultimately.

What most people don’t know is that even acting in an involuntary way can influence your feelings. Even when you try to smile when you don’t feel like it, you may somehow feel a bit happier than usual. Even scientific studies support this. An experiment was conducted on people, where they were given Botox, and such people weren’t to get angry often because they weren’t able to make angry or serious faces.

When somebody tries to check this “act the way you want to feel” theory, they should think of it as a self-regulation method rather than an involuntary action. When you might be feeling sad, try and behave as if you were happy, and you will definitely have some positive impact.

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This principle works in most cases on most people, and we suggest you try this so that you can find about it by yourself.