Summary:
- Experience more gratefulness
- You will become happier
- Infect others to be happier
- Show openness and tap new opportunities
If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours
Walking down the streets yesterday, I once again reminded myself to smile. Then, shortly after I had forced myself to grin wide, I realized why this habit had become so important to me: Immediately feelings of happiness arose and life felt much better than before.
I developed this habit after I had finished reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends”. His words inspired and convinced me in a way that I had the urgent need to follow his advice.
As Carnegie states in a poem dedicated to this topic, smiling costs nothing but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature’s best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone until it is given away.
The positive effects of a simple smile might surprise. But even if faked, a wide grin can give you a boost of hormones of happiness, make you feel exhilarated, and let you enjoy the moment.
In order to feel an immediate positive effect, though, you need to smile very broadly for at least 30 seconds. Your face might look quite silly, but if done right, you will definitely notice the benefit. Obviously, you cannot maintain this extreme facial expression forever. Yet, once you got into a happy mood, smiling becomes natural and you don’t need to fake grinning anymore.
Why I try to always have a smile on my face
In my opinion. the reasons why much smiling has so many advantages are pretty clear and outweigh the downsides by far. Too many people, however, look unhappy, annoyed, or neutral, leading to the conclusion that too many people don’t really know how much they can benefit from (just) smiling more. In order to tackle this issue, I will explain the most important reasons to have a smile more often on your face.
You will become happier
As previously explained and scientifically proven, even a fake smile makes you feel happy. True to the motto “Fake It Till You Make It”, a wide smile can trick your brain into believing you’re happy, spurring actual feelings of happiness. Just give it a try right now while you read this article.
Experience more gratefulness
Reminding yourself to smile more often helps you to be more grateful. Life isn’t not only about the chase of achievement after achievement. We will never be happy if we don’t take the time to enjoy them. The best way to enhance our happiness is a simple one: we just need to be more grateful for the things life offers us.
I always tell myself to be “never satisfied, but always grateful”. As I’m never satisfied with anything in life, I’m at high risk to become unhappy. Consistently reminding myself to be grateful for even the most little thing in life, though, allows me to enjoy a very happy and fulfilled life.
Smiling is one of those little things that make life so interesting. For instance, the feeling of walking outside on a sunny day, listening to singing birds, and breathing fresh air is so beautiful. Whenever I remind myself to smile, I immediately trigger a stronger awareness for those little things, enabling me to appreciate them more often.
Infect others to be happier
Have you ever been prompted to smile more? I reaaally don’t like when people tell other people to smile. You can never know why a person looks the way s/he looks; therefore, don’t tell them what to do.
If you really want to make this person smile, be a good leader and lead by example. Make them smile, don’t force them to be happy. Show that life is beautiful, be happy for life’s own sake, spread positivity, and make an impact.
When you try to always have a smile on your face, the people around you will become happier, too. You attract what you give. You can literally infect others with your smile.
Show openness and tap new opportunities
Smiling more often signals people around you that you are open towards them. You might argue now that you don’t want to get in touch with more people. That’s totally fine, but then you can stop reading here right now.
If you want to be more open, connect to people, obtain new and untapped ideas, live your life to the fullest and have great conversations, a smile can be a great door opener. If you are in a positive mood and radiate this positivity, you’ll have a much easier time meeting new people.
In my opinion, openness will always pay off. Being open-minded towards new people has plenty of advantages. In a previous article, I wrote down my thoughts regarding this topic. Click here to access it.
