I was going to wait to blog about smiling until more uniquely positives in my life have come from it. But in short, I want to share what I've found already to convince you to get started now. Because I'm honestly already becoming a more happy person because of it.
there's a reason why the "Mona Lisa" is so pleasing and popular
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I've come across several more articles and studies on how there are physiological effects from simply smiling.
Think about it - it is not a learned behavior and is present in every culture throughout history. It's more commonly accepted than the handshake. Everyone knows a smile as a friendly gesture. There is even a World Smile Day held on the first Friday of every October. Stared after the original artist who coined the "smiley face" Harvey Ball.
In the famous yearbook study, they tracked the lives of women who had the best smiles in yearbook photos compared to the rest. Women who smiled the most lived happier lives, happier marriages and had fewer setbacks.
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In the article mentioned above they also noted a study that examined baseball cards. A correlation was made with the players having the biggest smile ended up living on average, 7 years longer than the one hadn't.
Being more optimistic seems to be a side effect as well. Which could be due to what I've learned about neuroplasticity. And Hebbian theory cells that fire together wire together
Neuroplasticity: refers to the potential that the brain has to reorganize by creating new neural pathways to adapt, as it needs. Think of the neurological changes being made in the brain as the brain's way of tuning itself to meet your needs.
Already I've seen myself reacting differently to things that would normally upset me or cause an unpleasant reaction. When these things have come up, it hasn't mattered how big or small, it's already becoming a conscious reminder to smile.
Just today on the way to work my wife called me to let me know our sink is dripping and needs to be fixed when I'm home - Not how I wanted to start a Friday. But as soon as the conversation was over I retreated with a smile - because it's becoming a reflex. Fast-Forward two hours into my work day and my wife calls me again. BEFORE I pick up the phone I make the conscious effort to smile, hoping for good news. Not knowing what the call would be about, my wife simply wanted to inform me that maybe she didn't have the faucet turned off completely after-all, as the drip has stopped.
The past few night nights I have been doing this as well. As silly as it sounds I've been smiling my way to sleep. Which is actually more difficult to do than one would think. And believe it or not it's helping me sleep soundly throughout the night, where normally I would toss and turn and be up at least once.
I'm not performing the smile in an awkward way, it's more-so to help my default mood which I explained in my first blog about it here
Biochemist Sondra Barrett PHD suggests:
when you let go of tension—an outcome that can be achieved through smiling—your cells let go of their rigidness. According to Barrett’s research, this could end up saving your life as there are have been cases where cancer patients go into remission of cancer after letting go of a big stress factor.
An interesting tid bit I learned many a year ago is that even if you're not feeling well, if you smile it will trick your brain into releasing serotonin. So smile as much as possible ! :D
Just smile. thanks