A self-aware mantra declaring that maintaining unrealistic optimism is a valid coping strategy — acknowledging the delusion while embracing it anyway.
A playful declaration that unrealistic optimism is the answer to life's challenges. The phrase emerged around 2023 on TikTok, where shortened "delusional" became "delulu" and "solution" was styled as "solulu" to create a rhyming mantra. What started as internet wordplay became a global coping mechanism, spreading unchanged across cultures from Nairobi to Mumbai.
The phrase works because it's completely self-aware. Speakers know their thinking is unrealistic — that their crush isn't actually interested, that manifestation won't guarantee career success, that toxic positivity has limits. They're declaring delusion as intentional strategy rather than accidental blindness. It's both joke and genuine defense mechanism, wrapped in the same breath.
What makes this interesting is the generational context. A group facing economic instability, climate anxiety, and difficult relationship markets has collectively decided that maintaining hope through deliberate delusion is valid self-care. The phrase captures how internet culture takes complex psychological concepts and compresses them into shareable mantras — turning what therapists might call denial into a rhyming catchphrase that functions as both humor and survival strategy.