Last update: 26 March, 2017
Smile, so everyone will know that you are stronger than yesterday. Look up and draw that smile that deserves your expression and that your heart asks of you. Because if life is an attitude, it is worth dressing in the most dignified and beautiful gesture, the one that arouses emotions and that forces us to renew ourselves inside to continue moving forward.
Boris Cyrulnik, renowned neurologist and psychiatrist, states that no one really knows how to define happiness. In some ways, we could say that it contains many of the wounds from which people heal with the passage of time, but also the thread of resilience to embrace the hope of novelty, as people themselves are stronger than in the past.
For this reason, every smile we give to ourselves and to the world is like a sweet perfume, like a hymn to overcome oneself, like the courage to overcome the past, to accept what one is. A smile is the celebration of one's being and the most complete mechanism for connecting with others, that is why it acquires authenticity when it is sincere.
We cannot forget that even though there is so much magic in the smiles we see every day, each one hides a story. We invite you to reflect on it.
Always smile, even if it hurts sometimes
Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California, is one of the most famous scientists to have explored the topic of happiness. According to the expert, the smile is not a simple gesture of non-verbal communication or connection between people. In reality, it is a type of high intensity "energy" that can alter brain chemistry.
To prove this, he conducted a small study on people with severe depression. He showed them a video with several comic images, funny scenes with animals and monologues from television comedians. Most specialists would have expected patients not to react to these kinds of images. However, they did, albeit in a barely perceptible, barely noticeable way. The scientist recorded small movements of the lips, face, eyebrows.
They were almost instinctive micro-gestures associated with a positive emotion, something that many of these patients did not accept and that is why they left the room. The mechanism of the smile is linked to a sudden release of neuropeptides that are responsible for reducing stress, replacing this negative load with a positive one, through serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.
This feeling of relaxation and peace has been contradictory, even painful, for people with depression. These are the moments when smiling "hurts", because even if the brain wants it, the heart is not yet ready.
May your smiles always be sincere!
Analysts and advertising experts know that smiles have the power to conquer the consumer because they awaken positive emotions, trust and closeness. However, we have reached a point where there are more smiles for protocol than for the desire to express happiness or pleasure. Often, therefore, when someone approaches with a big smile on their lips, one wonders: What does he want to ask me? What do you want in return? What do you want to "sell me"?
All these gestures that we see every day are a source of inspiration. They convince us that smiling is an attitude with which to live life and a wonderful way to face it despite all the difficulties. According to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan, we spend 3 out of 10 days appeasing our moods or our personal demons.
Smiling by itself doesn't solve all problems, that's clear. However, it improves the mood and prepares us to take action. It is useless to be influenced by malaise, it is useless to give up when there are so many mechanisms to emerge victorious from one's personal labyrinths.
For this reason, the next time you feel a bad mood knocking on your door, you may find it useful to resort to this simple but cathartic strategy at the same time:
- Inhale for 5 seconds.
- Hold the air for 7 seconds.
- Exhale for 9 seconds.
- Raise your eyebrows as much as possible for 5 seconds as you inhale and exhale again.
- Now, smile.
In conclusion, most of the time cheerfulness is a source of smiles, in other moments, however, the very act of smiling instills calm, motivation and well-being. So let's make good use of this power that we all have at our fingertips.
