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Smile Day*
Duo Liu
University
Word count = 600
SMILE DAY
Smiling is one of the most underrated yet among the most powerful gifts human beings possess. It is a tool at our constant disposal that we often forget to use. In the paper, I will describe my reactions on ‘smile day’ along with the reactions of those I met during the day, and recount how it made me feel to smile throughout the day. I will further relate my personal reactions and of those I met to evidence from research to illustrate the biological and chemical processes involved in the practice.
As I planned to begin my smile day and had scheduled meetings with a lot of people for it, my morning alarm did not go off. As a result, I had got late to the class while driving fast on the way nearly missing another car. Although I had to smile the whole day, the incidents in the morning ruined the mood. However, I tried to force myself to smile and see through the day radiating positivity. I met the dentist with whom I had scheduled an appointment after class. I sat in the waiting room smiling at everyone. After I while, I forgot that I had started the day in a bad mood and started feeling positive. While waiting, I decided to help myself to a coffee and stood in a queue. The lady at the front smiled at me and I smiled back, as I took my cup back to my seat.
Remembering to maintain a smile throughout the day, I began conversing with a nearby person about how good the weather is these days. After a while, I realized that I hardly ever discussed the weather with a stranger before, and would always be absorbed in my own thoughts. It was probably the effect of smiling that created that little change in me. As I walked to the toilet, I found myself to be smiling naturally without forcing myself, even as I washed my hands. The day did not seem bad at all. The time for the appointment came and I met the dentist with a pleasant smile on my face, and he smiled back as he began to screen my teeth to see if it needed a dental filling.
The feeling I got so far was when I smiled towards the world, the world smiled back at me. The people I would normally treat indifferently, and who seemed to treat me indifferently, seemed to smile at me and treat me different than normal. Gradually, I began to see my own self as a since, relaxed, attractive and a reliable man. I felt that the women around me were feeling attracted to me and looked at me differently than before. I realized that just from the act of smiling, I created a chain of smiles around me. Just from the affects smiling had on me, I realized its power to calm the anxiety, insecurity and fear in people, and change the world.
I understood why spiritual experts and scientists alike find the act of smiling to be transformational. It is a common observation that smiles are contagious and can makes one appear more attractive, lifting out mood and those around us. The act of smiling generates feel-good neurochemicals in the brain that affect the happiness we perceive. There is a certain link between happiness, altruism and human nature, and it is possible that smiling has as a principle role in it (Warneken and Tomasello 2006: 1302). Furthermore, smiling releases neuropeptides in the brain that help battle stress, whereas smiling and making eye contact with the other also boosts happiness in others. It is one form of giving support to another person, as Inagaki and Eisenberger suggest that “support giving may be beneficial not only for the receiver but also for the giver” (2012: 3). Moreover, during such time in the brain, a “left-sided activation in several anterior regions is observed during certain forms of positive emotion” (Davidson et al. 2003: 564). The activation of the left-sided anterior portion of the brain leads to an increase in overall positive effects and reduces anxiety, which may explain how smiling affects the other person.
To conclude, although my day started with a bad mood, smiling throughout the day changed my internal as well as external experience. It made me realize that although we cannot control different external factors, we can change how we feel about them through the simple act of smiling.
Bibliography
Davidson, Richard J. and Kabat-Zinn, Jon and Schumacher, Jessica and Rosenkranz, Melissa and Muller, Daniel and Santorelli, Saki F. and Urbanowski, Ferris and Harrington, Anne and Bonus, Katherine and Sheridan, John F. 2003. “Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation.” Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570.
Inagaki, Tristen K. and Eisenberger, Naomi I. 2012. “Neural Correlates of Giving Support to a Loved One.” Special Series On Neuroscience In Health And Disease, 74, 3-7.
Warneken, Felix and Tomasello, Michael. 2006. “Altruistic Helping in Human Infants and Young Chimpanzees.” Science, 311, 1301-1303.
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