You’ll catch yourself lying to you mostly in the word “fine.” Listen for it.

Fine is the word that ends an inquiry. It is useful with strangers and useless with yourself, since it covers tired, worried, angry and genuinely all right with the same four letters. Used often enough it stops being a shortcut and becomes a way of not looking. The feeling does not leave, it just goes unlabelled and comes out somewhere else.

Ban the word for one day, only inside your own head. Answer other people however you like, but make yourself name the real thing privately: tired, bored, nervous, hungry, hurt. The accurate word often suggests an obvious fix, which the vague one never does.