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Steps to Happiness
What You’ll Do: For the entire week, you’ll focus on smiling more. You’ll develop a way to remind yourself to smile throughout your day and even force a smile onto your face periodically. Why? Research shows that if you smile, your mood actually improves. How It Works: Researchers think that by forcing a smile, you activate a specific set of muscles in the face. That set of muscles is closely connected to the emotions of happiness and joy. By smiling, you are signaling the emotional centers of your brain to tell them that everything is good. So even if it’s not, it will be soon. Get Motivated: Smiling more is a simple way to greatly improve the quality of your life. All you have to do is smile, and you will be a happier person. Really. It’s that simple.
Ways to Smile More This Week
Smiling is the natural response to something funny, happy, or enjoyable so it stands to reason that you probably do not need help with the automatic smile response. Where there is room for improvement is in those mundane, everyday situations when you otherwise might not be automatically smiling. To learn how to smile more, you must first practice: Here’s Your Commitment: This week I will smile every time I am reminded by my “smile cue(s).”
Tips for Smiling More
While steps one through three above provide everything you will need to challenge yourself to smile more, here are some other tips to help you:
Don’t look strange. Make your smiles natural, warm, and sincere. You are simply trying to maintain an elevated mood. Even just a small, almost unnoticeable smile can alter your mood. Smile every time you think of it, not only when you encounter your smile cue. Think of something you really like when you smile — it will help make your smile sincere. Think of your favorite vacation spot, driving a brand new car, or a good friend. Take a deep breath while you smile. This will help lessen any stress you have and give you a moment to enjoy your smile. A deep breath or two increases the relaxation and mood-enhancing the power of smiling. Place notes and reminders of this skill throughout your world to remind you to smile more. Put a note on the phone, send yourself an email message, or make a note on your calendar. Make sure that you have plenty of reminders to smile more often. Eventually, it will become a habit (and one of your most healthy ones).
Try Laughing, Too
Taking smiling to the next level means laughing. Figure out a way that you can laugh more this week. You don’t simply want to be amused — you want to be laughing out loud. Laughing out loud, much like smiling, creates an emotional state that relieves stress and lifts your mood. Search for things to laugh about every day this week. Read jokes, watch movies, and talk to funny people. Think of the funniest stories you know and tell one each day this week.
