If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.
I'm 30, and it seems I carry life more seriously now than I ever did. As much as I try to put on a smile around people and in public places, I can't lie to myself when I'm alone. What gives life meaning are the moments when we pause to take a truthful reflection of who we are and where we are. It's easier to camouflage, pretending to look all happy, but this comes with a cost, an expensive cost. Life hits everyone hard, trying to act like a victor sometimes can make us sadder than we are daily.
The moments of solitude are moments when our true state shows up. If you can smile when nobody is around, then such a smile is genuine. We can't lie to ourselves, we can only do that with people who can't read beyond our facial expressions. It's disastrous to lie to people and also lie to ourselves in the need to demonstrate our faith beyond our circumstances. To overcome any crisis we first need to say the truth, first to ourselves. You can tell the world you're happy, but you alone truly know if you're happy or not and it's impossible to lie to yourself.
Sometimes we need to take a pause from the hustle and buzzle of life and have a deep dialogue with the man in us. This is usually a stage of intimacy with oneself that opens up a channel for solution. The ingenuity of our smiles can only be verified when we're alone with our thoughts.