When you’re in the midst of difficult circumstances, it can be an interesting experiment to try to alter your experience through conscious decision. Because people generally react to us based what we put out in the world, and it is well-known that the smile is the most universally understandable emotional facial form of communication, I highly recommend “practice smiling”.
Particularly when you’re in a challenging mood, the discipline of practice smiling (at both strangers AND familiars) is guaranteed to make your head spin. The idea that you can effectively control, manipulate (I like the word “influence”) how other people react to you even when you’re hiding a true darker emotion is very convincing indeed. And let it be known that smiles beget smiles – the positive endorphins will start flowing, eyes will start sparkling, hell you may even get a laugh or two and pretty soon that darker emotion is made a little brighter – so while you may be doing it to make others days brighter, you’re really doing it for yourself!
Here’s a testimonial on the power of smiling by John Kinde. Now, it used to really piss me off when my bosses (usually men) would say comments like “Why don’t you smile more?” because I used to feel that it was a statement on their view that my very purpose in life was to make theirs easier and that’s a very dark thought for a budding feminist at the time. I can point to several people over the span of my life who simply wanted me to sit down, shut up, and smile while I was doing it. But one grows and learns and considers new approaches like these:
Here’s an article on the Taoist practice of the Inner Smile (which I could have used then too). Here’s an interesting article from GeofBloom on why people aren’t smiling as much these days, and why it’s doubly important that you do. Lastly, my favorite article is here and has 33 little known reasons why the smile is so important, beneficial and contagious. So practice smiling and “Be Wholly You“.
Image Credit: http://artfulplayground.wordpress.com/
