Scientifically Smiling

We've all seen the movie Inside Out, or at least heard of it. It is a beautiful work of art that depicts the turmoil and necessity of our emotions. Ask yourself, what is the emotion you most often feel and why? Now what is the emotion 99% of us want to feel as often as possible for as long as possible. HAPPINESS! I absolutely love smiling! In fact if you don't see me smiling then it more than likely means something is seriously wrong! However the art of smiling is able to quickly take away from those daunting feels and help bring your mindset back to a positive state and even assist with rationality.

Quick Story Time: The year was 2001, I was 5 years old when my mom took my sister and I to England to visit family for their summer. One day my oldest cousin and I were venturing towards the forest a block away from their house, when we rounded the corner we came face to face with one of the happiest woman I'd ever seen. All I remember was this bright beautiful smile on her face. As she approached us, her smile seemed to grow, but not in a creepy way, just in a more vibrantly happy way.

THIS HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS! My first thought was wow! She must have smiled so much in her life that the wind blew hard one day and froze her face that way (For those of you familiar with the old wives tale). Now I was absolutely ecstatic, the impact of that smile made me instantly happy and now I have a core memory for my reason to want to smile all the time. I love smiling because of the affect it has on myself and the people around me, so here's a bit of science behind the smile and why you should have a cheeky grin even on those dingy days!

What happens when you smile?

Heard of happy hormones? We humans love the rush of these positive inducing chemicals that our brains release when our reward system is.. well.. rewarded, obviously. Now have you ever felt like you've been stuck in a loop? This is definitely one you're going to want to stay in and here's why! When something delights you and you get all happy, the brain tells the reward system "Hey! let's release some endorphins!" while firing off some neuronal signals through to your facial muscles saying "Time to contract and show em those pearly whites!" (Or closed mouth smile if that's your go to).

Here's where the loop gets triggered! Your smiling muscles (zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi) fire signals back to the brain letting it know that they've done what it's asked. The brain, pleased with the response, hits up the reward system and asks for more happy hormones. You see where this is going? Remember those times you smiled so much that your cheeks started hurting or that smile just worked its way up to hysterical laughter? There's your answer to staying in that loop uninterrupted, until you essentially become exhausted. Happy brain, more smiling, more smiling, happier brain!

The contagious smile

Most of us stand in front of mirrors when doing our hair or brushing our teeth (or simply just to check yourself out cause hey! You're awesome!) and we're all familiar with the fact that the reflection does exactly what you do. There's actually a system referred to as mirror neurons inside of you. These are how a baby learns to mimic its parents, to walk, wave and clap or when you're captivated by the good looking person you're on a date with and you lean in when they do, take a sip of your drinks at the same time and tilt your head in the same direction as theirs. Mirror neurons have a lot of control over helping us synchronize with those around us as well as how we learn.

The smile is no exception to the mirror neurons. Seeing someone else smile triggers the mirror neurons and these tell you to smile too. When you smile your smiling muscles (zygomaticus major and orbicularis oculi) fire signals... 😁Am I being loopy? Okay fine! Then try this one, stand in front of a mirror and force a smile, I guarantee you'll end up smiling at yourself.

Why you should smile!

It's all fine and dandy smiling and feeling happy but barring the fact that smiling is contagious, what does being happy actually do for you? Here's a quick list of the benefits of being happy!

• Boost your immune system (Needed during a pandemic)
• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Decrease blood pressure, protecting the heart
• Reduce pain
• Increase longevity (Immortality here I come!)

Throw that contagious part back in and hey presto you've induced positive effects in a fellow human! Good for you!

Personally I find smiling at my problems a really refreshing and insightful way of managing them. I'm obviously triggered to be happy when I smile, it gives me the sense that the problems are not as major as they seem and allows me to put more rational thought towards them, rather than fear and panic based ones. The term "fake it till you make it" has an obvious, almost instant proof when it comes to smiling, genuinely try to fake a smile and not those half baked sneers (although pull one of those off funnily and you'll crack some real smiles if not laughs from those around you, maybe even yourself) and you'll mostly likely end up with an undoubtedly charismatic smile on your face and a more positive outlook on life!

Smile often, it's a beautiful way to bring a little more light into this world. You never know when your random smile could change the whole day of a passerby from being not so great to being a bit better and at the same time you'll be riding on cloud nine off of those happy hormones. Either that or eat 2000 chocolates (You're definitely not going to feel great after that) or win $20,000 (not an easily reproduced method) to get the same level of happiness a smile could potentially give you.