Smile please!

Smile please!

FPJ BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 06:36 PM IST
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Not just smile but laugh as much as you can every day. It is the best you can do for your physical and emotional health, says A. L. I. CHOUGULE.

In everyday course of life we come across many people. Some smile, some don’t; sometimes we smile and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we hesitate to smile; sometimes we make an effort to smile. Many times we want to smile but don’t and sometimes we don’t want to smile but end up smiling.

Smiling for someone is sweet, so goes a saying, but making someone smile is the best feeling. Easily said than done? Indeed. Smiling can be either voluntary or involuntary, but it is much more than that. It is a happy emotion that creates positive energy in body and mind. And yet many times it is hard to smile and it is tougher to make someone smile.

But not for children, though. They smile easily; little kids start smiling even before they learn to speak. You don’t need to learn to smile; it comes naturally to everyone. Why do we find something that’s natural and of our own volition so difficult? Why children don’t find it difficult?

That’s probably because children are the most innocent and amiable souls. They are friendly, sociable, cordial, good-natured and kind. Their world is full of energy, positivity and warmth. Their desires simple and life uncomplicated. Being happy comes to them easily; cheerfulness is in their nature. When you are cheerful and happy, smiling doesn’t become a forced act.

On the first day of school, does the child smile or cry? Cry would probably be the obvious answer.  The child does cry

but not when he leaves for school in brand new uniform, with water bottle and snack box. It is only when the child enters classroom and sees parent/s going that he/she starts crying. But soon the child mingles with other children, plays, smiles, laughs and does what the teacher tells him/her to do and forgets parents.

It is said that happiness begins with a smile. Smile has several physical and emotional benefits. Studies suggest that smiling – both involuntary and voluntary – can have a positive effect on your mood, decrease stress level and hence make you feel better as well as those around you. Smile is not only contagious because of complex brain activity that occurs when you see someone smiling; it also helps you manage stress and anxiety by releasing endorphins, chemicals that make you happier. Smiling even lowers blood pressure.

Smiling also makes your immune system stronger by making your body produce white blood cells to help fight illness. One study found that hospital children who were visited by story-tellers and puppeteers who made them smile had higher white blood cell counts than those children who were not visited.  Another study found that smiling can make you comfortable in situations you would otherwise feel awkward in.

Research has also found that people are willing to engage socially with others who are smiling. A smile suggests that you are personable and easy going. A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology found that smiling actually makes you more attractive to those you smile at.  It improves your credibility as well. Participants in a University of Pittsburgh study rated people who smile as more trustworthy than people with non-smiling facial expressions.

It is often claimed that children smile and laugh more frequently than adults do. It is largely true though there is no definite research to back up the claim. But it is also true that as people grow they become serious and lose the ability to smile and laugh as often as children do. According to one study, children smile and laugh on an average 300 times a day as compared to adults. Babies and children express happiness in many ways but the most common way is through smiling and laughing.

Whether it’s because life is a happy occurrence to them is anybody’s guess, but it is true that children are a contended lot; they are happy with what they have and aren’t concerned with things they don’t have.  They smile when they see parent/s. They smile when they see their lunch, they are happy to play with ball or hide-n-seek and hence they smile and laugh with other children.

Though it doesn’t mean that adults are unhappy and dejected as compared to children, but it is true that adults are not as innately happy as kids because as people grow they tend to worry and concern themselves with a lot of things they don’t have and hence end up smiling and laughing less.

Smiling and laughing are vital part of being happy and it is worthwhile making a conscious effort to do more of both. May be adults could learn a lot from children on how to be happy in life. Smiling and laughing each day is not only good physically and emotionally but as important as material achievements. So smile a lot and enjoy a good laugh today and every day!

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