Smiling in August
Hello, and it’s still August! Just.
Recently, I was toying with some ideas for my next talk (see Events) and it led me to ‘smile’, as I remembered a story I’d written years back, called The Last Smile (must dig that out sometime). It was based on the social and physiological effects that smiling has on us, and what might happen if we all stopped smiling. This led to a bit of research around the subject, and funnily enough not much has changed - smiling, it doesn’t even have to be sincere, is still the easiest, cheapest and most effective action we can take to improve how we feel and how those around us feel.
Go on, smile at yourself in the mirror. You may need to do it a few times - see it does work. Now, try thinking about something bad and smiling at the same time - yes it’s really difficult to do. Unless you’re a born pessimist. I’m smiling while I write this and immediately my happy hormones have increased, making the pain in my back, leg and neck more bearable.
God invented laughter and he probably began with a simple heart warming smile, and as usual, He really knew what he was doing. You see smiling is like yawning in humans or pecking in chickens (social facilitation), if one does it, the others can’t stop themselves from doing it either, in other words smiling is contagious!!
So, here are the scientifically proven benefits of smiling; helps you live longer, reduces stress (go on smile at yourself in the mirror again, even if you don’t feel like it), it elevates mood (why wouldn’t you want to make that grumpy person serving you smile; you’ll feel better, they’ll feel better and probably be nicer to the next customer, who will then feel better), it improves the immune system so you fight off disease better, lowers blood pressure and heart rate, reduces pain, makes you more attractive, more youthful looking, and people are naturally drawn to others who smile, assuming they are more positive and successful, confident and approachable. Awesome or what!
The effects of smiling are hard-wired into our brains, despite the different cultural meanings behind a smile, but that’s a whole other subject.
So smile, your brain will interpret that as life is good, even when it isn’t, and you will feel better and be more able to cope.
Let’s exercise our powerful, God given smiles freely and increase God’s wonderful gift to others. Your smile can literally improve someone elses’ life as well as your own.
I’m still smiling,
Ceridy