by Ivy from Beautifully Simply You
I have always been told how beautiful of a smile that I have. So beautiful that it became easy to hide behind. My smile became a mask for me that told the world I was doing okay, when in actuality, I was struggling. I think to this day it is easy to brush something off, claim you are okay and fake a half smile. I can remember the countless fights in my relationship ending without resolution with the statement, “Can I just see a smile?” I realize now how unhelpful and unhealthy that was for me. I was being told to cover how I was feeling with a smile. The smile justified to another person and to myself that things were fine, when things were incredibly far from fine.
I truly believe we should laugh and smile as much as humanely possible. I think you should smile your beautiful smile as much as possible, because smiling helps us to feel better, and can bring a smile to other people, I just hope you never feel you have to hide behind it.
As we are celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month, it is important for me to note that smiling and positivity are so important for our mental health, but equally as important is giving ourselves the space to be truthful with ourselves and feel sad if we feel sad, hurt if we hurt, feel our feelings if we need to feel our feelings, and say we are not okay if we are not okay.
If you have been encouraged your whole life to smile even when you aren’t okay, I relate to you and know how lonely that can feel. But my wish for you is that you invest so much in who you are, that you recognize you are deserving of happiness, and that you recognize that it is okay to not be okay but that it is also more than okay to get help. And if you can do that, if you can show up for yourself entirely and do the work internally to know how amazing and capable you are, you can recognize your internal beauty and happiness and then the smile you show the world will be genuine and sincere.
And even once you have achieved that internal happiness and knowledge of your worth, you will still have those days when you just don’t want to smile, or you use a smile to cover your real emotions. My wish for you is that you be patient with yourself, remind yourself that it is okay, and that you will simply try again tomorrow. My wish is that you always remember that even though tomorrow isn’t promised, you won’t give up on your tomorrow.
Now when people say to me that I have such a beautiful smile, I can say thank you, because now when I smile, I am not hiding, I am being exactly who I am, and I am happy, even on the days that are dark and grey, I am happy and proud of who I have worked so hard to become beneath my smile.
My wish for you is that your internal smile shines so brightly inside that it shines outwardly for the world to see how beautiful your smile is.
Xo,
Be Beautifully Simply You