this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
229 points (96.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27087 readers
2870 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

You know the type, probably a good father or worker, but serious faced all the time, never smiles, often in a bad mood, very cynical. It’s just I feel like I’m on the path to this, I’m 28, just escaped 12 years of food service so I’m already super cynical and if someone comes up to me, I’m super ready to shut down whatever’s about to happen. I feel like working with customers for years I’ve learned to have giant walls up and I can’t seem to remove them. I see the other guys in the factory I’m working at laughing and joking all the time, I think of myself as funny but it’s always deadpan humor and I wish I could genuinely smile and laugh and make friends with the other guys. Any old timers or well travelers out there have any advice?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think one thing you can do is just practice smiling. Smiling sends you good brain chemicals, even if you're not happy. Maybe those other guys joke and laugh with each other, but not you, because when they see your serious face, they think you don't want to interact with them. If you smile when you overhear their jokes, they may rope you in. And people just like seeing someone smile. (Generally. If people start looking worried and edging away from you slowly, maybe dial it back a little.)

One other thing I think of as a hallmark of crotchety people is reacting to any development pragmatically or even pessimistically. A lot of things that happen in life could be interpreted in multiple ways, and you can try to focus on the positive sides of things. Boss asks you to do extra work? Maybe it's an opportunity to impress them, or develop a new skill. Car won't start? Well, it IS nice out, and it feels good to go for a walk. I know that isn't always easy to do, often times a thing happens that is just crappy. But try to practice it whenever you get a chance, until it becomes a habit.

Additionally, since that's not always reliable, make a habit at the end of the day to think of and say out loud 3 things that happened that you were grateful for that day. They can be big broad things like "I'm glad I'm healthy" or even "I'm glad my back didn't hurt like usual" or really specific like "I'm glad Tony said he'd cover my shift at work, he didn't have to do that."

[–] LeanFemurs 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

☝️underrated comment. I've been doing remote tech support & customer service for a few years and taught myself to smile whenever I'm typing out a message to a customer. Even though the customer can't see it, it nudges my head in the right direction and makes the work more tolerable.

[–] charliespider 2 points 1 year ago

You are literally bio-hacking your brain by doing this. It seems counterintuitive but your mood is partially controlled by a feedback loop in your brain, and smiling will essentially force other parts to get on board the happy train.