Smile Darn It Smile!

Smile. Have you ever noticed how easily puppies make human friends? Yet all they do is wag their tails and fall over. ~Walter Anderson, The Confidence Course, 1997

In 1931, a Merry Melodies cartoon had "Smile Darn Ya, Smile" as its title and the lyrics of the background song. You can watch this on YouTube if you'd like. It makes me think about smiling in general. Smiling is such an enjoyable activity. Can you think of anyone who's sad who can continue being sad and smile at the same time? I can't.

Smiling breaks up sadness. It allows us to turn our thinking to something improved, even if it's only a temporarily funny idea. If you are a parent, you know you can coax a child away from sadness by getting him to smile, right? Smiling mellows life out and softens an attitude of sadness or anger or fear.

All human beings are connected mentally. We are all created out of the same mind that lives invisibly inside each of us. Smiling helps us to recognize that connection, because each of us universally responds to a smile in precisely the same way. It feels so good to wrap yourself around a smile someone else has gifted you.

Wouldn't it be an interesting experiment to choose one day out of your work week and consciously make an effort to smile at your co-workers, the people on the bus, the folks in the dining hall, the cop directing traffic? They might wonder what you're up to, but I promise you, they will invariably smile back. It's in their nature to smile back at you. You can help to increase the happiness of others by smiling. Your attitude as well as theirs will improve.

Dr. Dale Jorgensen from Califo
ia State University's Psychology Department in Long Beach said "If I show pictures of people of different ethnic groups and they're frowning, then the more frequently people are shown pictures of frowning faces, then the less they like that group." Very telling!

If you observe people of power and accomplishment on the television, are you more drawn to them when they are smiling or when their look is more ste
? This hold true for you as well.

If you want to strengthen the emotional bond between you and your boss, give him or her lots of warm, friendly, sincere smiles. He'll feel good in your company and when it's time to do that annual performance appraisal, he'll intuitively recall your smiling and the attitude that underlies it. Oh, and it also helps to do a phenomenal job for him. That goes without saying. And here's an idea worth noting: a person receives more help when smiling, so maybe that explains why your boss has been smiling at you!

Smiling is contagious and it permeates the room with warmth and good feelings. Smiling promotes positive moods. Just as a sunny day increases the tips left for waitresses, so smiling affects the smiler and the one smiled at. Both have happier moods and attitudes and because it is your attitude that governs your life, it's good to have a happy one, eh?

Everyone smiles in the same language. ~Author Unknown