Thursday, May 30, 2013

Sunny Smiles

I'm sure this message won't be new, because it's advice that people so often give, however, everyone needs a reminder now and then.

Smile.

Even when life can't seem to get any worse, smile.  At the very least, the act of smiling tricks your body into releasing a small amount of happy hormones.  

My mom always gives advice about confidence.  She says "even if you don't feel it, fake it."  And the funny thing about faking confidence is that, after a while, you find that you aren't faking it anymore.  The same goes for being happy.  (No, I'm not telling you to never let anyone know when you're upset. People need that sometimes.  You can't always be happy, it just isn't possible to feel cheery every moment of every day.  However...)  If you're having a gloomy mood kind of day for no apparent reason, put that smile on your face, and fake the happiness.  Soon you'll forget that you're even faking.

Smile.

Smiles have a huge amount of power in the world.  Imagine, you're having a bad day, you're walking down the aisle of the grocery store, not paying a lot of attention to the front of your cart.  You're busy thinking about all of the ways that your day fell apart.  You run into someone's foot with the wheels of your cart, and drop your purse at the same time.  The person turns around, glares at you, and says sharply "Watch where you're going," before turning the corner into the next aisle.

Or, does the person turn around, and giving you a friendly smile picks up your purse for you?  Does the person reply to your mumbled apology with an upbeat "Don't worry about it!" and cheerily wishes you a good-bye before turning into the bread aisle?  Doesn't that sound like a much happier version?  That's the kind of response that can turn a bad day around.

It's incredible what a difference that someone flashing a smile at you can make.  Smiles say "You're worthy of happiness.  You are cared about."  In the same way that you would hope that someone would give you a smile on your worst days, be willing to shell them out as often as you can.  They're free, after all.

Smile.

You never know the difference that it'll make.