Your health and relationships can both get a "boost" out of one simple action that costs you nothing and even burns calories -- smiling.
Bigger Smile, Better Health
Choosing to smile "big" on purpose (even if you are not "feeling" it) has measurable positive effects on your body and mind, and even affects the mental and emotional state of people around you. The smile has to be big enough that it "crinkles" your eyes at the corners, but if you can make the small effort to smile larger and more frequently, that small choice can help you:
Increase Your Lifespan
Aside from just helping you feel better in the short term, these small, natural adjustments to your brain chemistry also help you to approach situations with a more positive, constructive attitude -- a perspective that many studies indicate helps promote longer life. At the same time, it encourages faster healing and makes it more difficult for you to react with frustration and negativity, attitudes that can measurably speed up mental and physical decline.
Strengthen Immunity
When you smile, you are helping your body fight off disease more effectively. Studies show that laughing and smiling broadly actually help your body increase the number of antibody-producing cells and makes your "T" cells, which help guard you against infection, more effective.
Stop Stress' Progress
Some of the same brain chemistry changes that help you feel happier when you smile also help you reduce stress and bad feeling. Smiling also reduces your blood pressure, and it can be an important tool to help you break stress' momentum and instead stop, regroup, and relax. In the long term, purposefully fostering a positive attitude can also help you adapt better to new kinds of stress.
Limit Signs of Aging
As we age, fat and muscle in the upper face sag, but smiling "big" helps exercise the upper facial muscles and, momentarily, pull soft tissue and fat into a fuller, more youthful shape. And while some people avoid smiling because of worries about "crow's feet," studies suggest that on both young and old people these "smile lines" not only help you look happier, they also encourage other people to see -- and treat -- you more positively.
Improve Relationship Chemistry
People who smile more tend to get promoted more often and tend to maintain stable romantic relationships much longer. Researchers have found that when we someone sees us smiling, they instinctively start smiling as well. If they smile back, they will also feel more positive, and this domino effect will help foster a more positive environment for everyone concerned.
Joy and humor are integral to any good relationships -- at work or at home -- and fostering healthy interactions doesn't just make sense; it's important for your happiness.
Bigger Smile, Better Health
Choosing to smile "big" on purpose (even if you are not "feeling" it) has measurable positive effects on your body and mind, and even affects the mental and emotional state of people around you. The smile has to be big enough that it "crinkles" your eyes at the corners, but if you can make the small effort to smile larger and more frequently, that small choice can help you:
Increase Your Lifespan
Aside from just helping you feel better in the short term, these small, natural adjustments to your brain chemistry also help you to approach situations with a more positive, constructive attitude -- a perspective that many studies indicate helps promote longer life. At the same time, it encourages faster healing and makes it more difficult for you to react with frustration and negativity, attitudes that can measurably speed up mental and physical decline.
Strengthen Immunity
When you smile, you are helping your body fight off disease more effectively. Studies show that laughing and smiling broadly actually help your body increase the number of antibody-producing cells and makes your "T" cells, which help guard you against infection, more effective.
Stop Stress' Progress
Some of the same brain chemistry changes that help you feel happier when you smile also help you reduce stress and bad feeling. Smiling also reduces your blood pressure, and it can be an important tool to help you break stress' momentum and instead stop, regroup, and relax. In the long term, purposefully fostering a positive attitude can also help you adapt better to new kinds of stress.
Limit Signs of Aging
As we age, fat and muscle in the upper face sag, but smiling "big" helps exercise the upper facial muscles and, momentarily, pull soft tissue and fat into a fuller, more youthful shape. And while some people avoid smiling because of worries about "crow's feet," studies suggest that on both young and old people these "smile lines" not only help you look happier, they also encourage other people to see -- and treat -- you more positively.
Improve Relationship Chemistry
People who smile more tend to get promoted more often and tend to maintain stable romantic relationships much longer. Researchers have found that when we someone sees us smiling, they instinctively start smiling as well. If they smile back, they will also feel more positive, and this domino effect will help foster a more positive environment for everyone concerned.
Joy and humor are integral to any good relationships -- at work or at home -- and fostering healthy interactions doesn't just make sense; it's important for your happiness.
