Does smiling affect your health?

On April 1st I wrote an article about sharing and in that article I mentioned that when I feel down in the dumps, I force a smile on my face and I immediately begin to feel better.



For those of you who smirked and thought to yourselves, that is crazy, I have some proof for you that it in fact does make a difference.



In the article The Untapped Power of Smiling – (Forbes – March 22, 2011) the following was stated:



"An intriguing UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study examined the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives.



By measuring the smiles in the photographs the researchers were able to predict: how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others.



The widest smilers consistently ranked highest in all of the above.



Even more surprising was a 2010 Wayne State University research project that examined the baseball card photos of Major League players in 1952. The study found that the span of a player’s smile could actually predict the span of his life!



Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, while players with beaming smiles lived an average of 79.9 years."



So, smiling does have a positive effect on your life. Even better, it also will have a positive impact on the lives of those whom you share your smile with.



Try this experiment: Have a friend with you and have your friend walk about 20 feet behind you as you both walk along a busy street. When you pass someone who is not smiling, just plaster a huge smile on your face as you walk by. Then have your friend note the expression on that person’s face when she/he walks past him/her.



Finally, let me know your results.



Life is too short to spend any time feeling sad or depressed. Life is too short to spend all of your time doing things you do not enjoy just to make some money to buy things you don’t really want or need just because someone told you that you needed it to be a "real man or woman".



Life is too short to not share your gifts with others and we all have special gifts, even if they are only as simple as smiling at others or saying "hi" as we walk past them.



For more information, please visit:

http://www.happeneur.com