Smiling is something we should implement in our everyday lives and is something that is related to happiness and well-being. Is smiling something you use and bless others with on a daily basis? Whether you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, struggled through powering through your day, or had one of those arguments early morning with one of your family members, it could be difficult to draw a smile on your face when feeling down or having problems with oral health. Just in case you need some info as to how often you should meet with your dentist, check out this blog from Simply Dental Chatswood.
However, did you ever think that smiling at such a bad moment in life could possibly switch things around and have positive things happen? Smiling creates happiness both internally and externally and could certainly create changes we would not imagine.
Moreover, smiling is something we can share with others where we provide a positive environment where everyone feels the friendliness and comfort of the moment. It is not like we are saying that we could or are going to use smiling to solve all of life’s problems, but smiling does provide physical and psychological benefits. Maintaining good oral health also makes you feel fresh and confident at all times. If you want to maintain a good oral health you can visit oaktowndental.com
Below are 16 reasons to smile every day:
1. Reduce Stress
Did you know that the simple act of smiling could help you relieve and remove stress from your daily life? You are probably thinking I should smile more. I mean who would like to busy and stressed every day for the whole year? A study published in the Psychological Science journal in 2012 performed by psychological scientists from the University of Kansas had 170 participants hold chopsticks in their mouths in three formations.
This act of holding the chopsticks in their mouths made the participants smile to different degrees unconsciously. The experiment brought about results that showed that the participants with the biggest smiles experienced a faster stress recovery and huge reduction in their heart beat. On the contrary, people who had neutral expressions did not experience such benefits. Moreover, let alone the studies, when you smile you feel happier and in a better mood and thus this should automatically take your brain off things that might bring about distress and thus eliminating some stress.
2. Makes You More Approachable
Did you know that smiling could make you more approachable? If you saw the same person in two different situations, where in the first situation the person is smiling and looks happy and in the other situation the same person has a neutral expression, in which situation would you approach the person? I am hoping you would choose the first situation because it is logical and because having a neutral expression does not inform you of the mood of the person you are about to approach.
Moreover, a Penn State University study performed in 2004 showed that in the service industry, the effect of true smiles shared by employees toward their customers had a positive impact on the customers. Of course, this is so logical. Employees that were smiling were thought of as more likable and friendly and the happy customers gave feedback feeling more satisfied with their experience. Thus, even though a certain venue maybe filled with different events and really busy, customers usually head to stalls where they find a larger smile and feel like they would have a better experience. This is why smiling is very important if you want to appear to be approachable.
3. Boost Your Productivity
Who would not like to be really productive every day and get things done easily and effectively by not wasting so much time on any given task or activity. A study done in 2010 by a team of economic researchers discovered that productivity in the workplace was the result of happiness. You do not want to be drained of your energy and effort by being and displaying negative thoughts and actions and instead want to think positively and have this positive energy. Who would have thought grinning or smiling could be a key to success in your career or other relationships.
4. Smiling Is Contagious
Smiling is something that is contagious and something that is easily transferred from one person to another. Did you ever realize that a friend, colleague, or even a stranger could reciprocate a smile you share with them? Moreover, this happens often that you get a smile in return for a smile you put forth. According to Marco Iacoboni, a neuroscientist, humans own something known as mirror neurons. These are cells located in the inferior parietal cortex and premotor cortex and are activated when we witness or perform a certain action. This is what happens with smiling.
5. Improve Your Mood
Did you know that smiling could improve and boost your mood? Smiling gets you in a state where you are happy and not having any distressing thoughts. Our facial expressions could not only show our current mood, but also influence our mood. Do you feel like you cannot smile because you are racing through life or for some other reason? Based on a number of studies the simple act of grinning could possibly improve your mood instantly.
6. Faces Full With Smiles Are More Attractive
Did you know that smiling could actually make you look and feel younger? You would not have even guessed, right? So, forget about the possibly expensive wrinkle and face creams, because smiling might be a strong, potent tool that helps with anti-aging. During a study published in the journal named “Psychology and Aging”, participants were asked to guess the age of various adults in photographs and guess what?
Can you imagine that the participants underestimated the age of the adults displayed in the photographs that were smiling? Had those adults in the photographs not been smiling and just had a neutral expression, the participants would have been more likely to guess the ages correctly.
7. Smiling Could Reflect Your Quality Of Life
Who would not like to live a quality life all the time? Smiling is one of the things that could reflect your life and its quality. What would you conclude about someone’s life if you saw them smiling all the time or even some of the time? This could give you the idea or notion that this person leads a healthy, positive, and well organized life. All of this information is implied just from the simple action of smiling.
8. Smiling Induces Positivity
This idea that smiling causes and induces positivity is related to the idea that smiling could boost your mood, cause you to be more productive, and reduce stress. Would all these three things not bring positivity and positive energy into your life? That is why it is always a good habit and practice to make use of smiling and engrave it in our lives. Besides benefiting you, you may lift someone’s mood or spirit up by smiling to them.
9. Smiling Is Free
Smiling is something we do when we feel more relaxed and happy. Smiling is also something that is contagious and so we can help others feel happy by greeting with them with a smile that could very easily draw a smile on their face and thus make us contribute to brightening their day and uplifting their mood. However, is smiling something we should only do when in a good mood or when everything is going well? Not at all, we could also attempt to smile during hard times and difficult situations. It is not like smiling is something that is bought or something that costs money. It is absolutely free and thus we need to utilize every chance we get to smile and become more positive.
10. Reduction Of Pain
In addition to the direct benefits of pain, pain also has some indirect pros. Did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams that smiling could help reduce your pain? When you smile, you actually release happy hormones known as endorphins. These endorphins are actually natural painkillers which fill the body and sooth it, thus eliminating or reducing pain. Now you know smiling helps with pain, so make sure you smile everyday as much as you can.
11. Passing Of Time
Have you been in one of these situations or scenarios where time is passing so slowly and you would do anything to make time pass faster? This may have occurred in school or work and you just do not know what to do. Well, there is one very simple way that could work, and that is smiling. Smiling as we mentioned earlier causes the elevation of the mood and positivity and thus could help calm you down and help you think of the bright side. This is effect will cause you to not look every five seconds to the watch and eventually the time will pass before you could even finish all your work.
12. Smiling Provides A Natural High
Would you love to get a natural high without resorting to unlawful substances that only bring about negativity, bad habits, and lead you into a deep black whole known as addiction? Well, here is your natural high solution, smiling. Serotonin is a hormone that enhances mood and acts like a natural drug. In addition to the endorphins released while smiling to reduce pain; another hormone that is released when smiling is serotonin. Thus, take advantage of smiling and get as many natural highs as you like without the side effects. In addition, do not be selfish and share your natural high with others.
13. Reduction Of Blood Pressure
Would you like to live with high blood pressure and all the problems associated with it or rather be on the safe side and take care of your health and blood pressure? Well, smiling is the solution again. This topic is related to what we mentioned earlier about endorphins. Endorphins are those hormones that act as natural painkillers and reduce your pain. In the case of blood pressure, smiling triggers the release of endorphins and thus helps reduce blood pressure. Go ahead and monitor your blood pressure before and after smiling and check out the results. Now, think about how smiling all the time can help ensure continuous well-being and health.
14. Make Connections
Are you the kind of person that likes to always work on expanding your connections or are you satisfied with the amount of connections you have or maybe even like to live alone? Smiling could be a strong, yet easy way to get others attention and make new friends and relations. I mean to start a connection with someone; you could call the person, poke them, or maybe smile while making eye contact with them. Which one would you mark as the easiest? Using the smiling technique would probably be the politest way and the one that will attract the person’s attention. Calling someone out or poking them may seem inappropriate when it comes to strangers and may drive them away instead of bringing them closer. So, start implementing the ‘smiling technique’ and win over new connections.
15. Memories
Memories are one of the things we live for. Do you still remember your childhood days, where you had a lot of fun with friends and family? Even more, do you remember clearly a certain event or activity that happened? Well, smiling could get you on the path of building memories. Smiling can brighten an individual’s day and make it so good that it becomes part of your memories. If you look back at the beautiful memories and photographs you had, it will be hard to find something where you are unhappy and negative.
16. Moving Forward
Moving forward and improving is something all of us always look forward to and work hard to achieve. Whether it is personal development, getting promoted at work or becoming a wiser person, we sometimes would do anything to reach a certain stage that takes us a step forward. Now, do you think you can smile your way to achievements and accomplishments leading to success. You can easily notice people in a workplace that are smiling and interactive and think highly of them, so why do you not try it and experience the benefits and the amazing feeling that comes along.
The above are just some of the reasons we should show our teeth every day. Smiling is a good act that if done enough could develop into a good habit that grows with you and is maintained in the future. So, do not wait for anything good to happen, just start smiling and appreciating what you have and your current circumstances.
What else, other than smiling, have you found that improves your life? Tell us below.
