What’s With That Smile?

What is Smile?

Smile is an involuntary expression which brings inner joy on the outside. Some believe that smiling is a natural response while many fail to realise that it can be taken as a personal choice.

Like a yawn, a smile is contagious too. Whenever you smile at a random person, chances are that the person smiles back. If you talk to someone with a smile, the conversation tends to go really well. A smile can get you out of so many troublesome situations. A smile is a sign of happiness. But what is a smile? Is it just a curve of our lips or is it more than that?

“Smile and the world smile with you, you cry, you cry alone.” 

You smile, I smile

A smile is a universal message of joy and love. It is more than just a muscle flex, it is a feeling of delight.

Scientifically speaking, whenever we encounter a blissful situation, our body releases happy hormones (endorphins) that activate the gorgeous smile of ours. A smile will help you get that deal as you will be seen as approachable and trustworthy.

A smile is our body’s way of telling us to do more of what makes us smile because our body likes to smile.

But why do we smile?

What is the need to smile? Can our body go well without smiling? Well, it cannot.

A smile is a form of reward that our body gives to our mind. Smiling encourages positive energy and healthy communication patterns, both of which humans are in need of. It is a trick that helps people mingle and socialize. A single smile can disarm the grumpiest person.

According to research, people who genuinely smile more, tend to live longer than those who do not. It is of no surprise then, that those who smile more often, live a happier life. Happiness is a state of mind, and such people tend to have a healthier mind.

Power of Smile

The act of smiling in itself shows how powerful it is and it is also backed up by a lot of researches that- it helps in elevating mood, it improves the immune system and health, and quality of life. It holds a lot of power in not just short-term perspective, but long-term perspective too.

Short term perspective involves– managing stress and relationships while,

long-term benefits could be better emotion regulation and keeping a positive perspective in life. 

Benefits of Smiling

• It helps manage stress
• It makes us feel more confident
• It helps in spreading happiness
• It helps us in staying positive
• It makes us feel young and light
• It helps us manage Blood pressure
• It improves our immune system–
• It improves our mood
• It increases our productivity
• It helps you live longer

1. It helps manage stress

When we are under stress, we feel a range of negative emotions, and all of this shows up on our face. We clench our jaw; we grind our teeth or we just feel drained and exhausted. That’s when smiling as an exercise can help us relieve those muscles in our jaw. It will help in relaxing them and also will make us feel better. Smiling can also bring about laughter which boosts our mood instantly.

2. It makes us feel more confident

When we smile and look at ourself in the mirror, we can visualise ourself with those happy emotions and that is when we become more welcoming about those emotions. We smile, we feel a sudden rush of feel-good emotions and it ultimately motivates us to be positive. It helps us initiate positive self-talk, which positively reinforces our self-esteem.

3. It helps in spreading happiness

Smiling is contagious. When we see someone smile, we smile back at them and that is how it becomes a chain. This is just the power of smile which makes us build trust with another person and feel safe. It helps to bring us close and then it becomes easy to maintain the relationship.

Imagine a person rolling their eyes or cringing? All these facial expressions give a wrong impression about the person’s feeling s towards us. A warm welcoming smile can do the opposite.

4. It helps us in staying positive

Smiling can help us feel positive about a lot of things in life, be it about self as well as of others. It helps us become more inclined towards positive emotions and better emotion expression. Also, smiling gives a lasting impression of us and make us memorable for others. 

5. It makes us feel young and light

Frequent Frowning can result in fine lines on the forehead and make us age faster, while a smile can bring about good blood circulation, which aids in glowing skin. It lifts our face, so we look so much better. It relieves muscle tension and helps us feel light and relaxed. 

6. It helps us manage Blood pressure

When we smile because of laughter, there is an increase in heart rate and blood circulation, which then lowers down when we relax. Making this a habit can help regulate the blood circulation and pressure in the body. 

7. It improves our immune system

Many types of research on smiling shows that it induces relaxation when certain neurotransmitters get released. This release of neurotransmitters can boost the immune system and can help ward off a lot of infections such as flu. 

8. It improves our mood

Smiling intentionally, can trick our mind to react in a positive way and improve mood. When we smile, there are some neuropeptides and neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which in turn boosts the neural communication.

9. It increases our productivity

Benefits of smiling are not just limited to making our personal life better. It also follows us in the workplace. The elevated mood and positive outlook keep us motivated to do well at the workplace and work efficiently. It gives a good impression on colleagues and employers. We look approachable to other people and this helps in making better workplace relationships.

10. It helps you live longer

As now we know that smiling helps in dissolving stress, maintaining blood pressure and improving the immune system, smiling is also an effective pain killer. It helps in the release of serotonin and endorphins that help in increasing the pain threshold, thereby making us more resilient, both emotionally and physically. All these factors do affect how long we live.

Smile and Mental Health

A smile works like a charm to keep negativity at bay. With negative thoughts far away, positive thoughts home our minds. Just a simple act of smiling can help us feel gratitude and love towards the simple things that we tend to miss. And it is the attention to these simple things that add satisfaction to our lives.

Whenever you feel stressed, just go look yourself up in the mirror and smile. We bet it will do wonders. ! Happy thoughts will start arriving and your stress levels are sure to reduce. This will in turn generate positive emotions and, who knows, you may even solve the problem that has been bothering you.

Smiling increases your productivity and help you focus on quality. The delivery of qualitative work will boost your self-esteem at the end of the day.

It’s right under your nose!

Smiling is a free act. It doesn’t require a special class or tools. You can do it without any practice. Even babies can smile because it is effortless and natural. Like food, it is a need of your body. like food is. To make your mental health better, to make peace with your inner self, and most importantly, to be a good human, SMILE. It is free and it works like MAGIC!

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