How much is a smile worth?

THE PRICE OF A SMILE 

How much do you think a smile would cost?  What value would you assign to a smile given to you?  How would you calculate the residual effect of seeing a smile, or giving a smile? What if your life depended on smiling?

This world is full of people who run around full of negativity– frustration, anger, disappointment. As their frustration piles up, they become contagious spreading it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets, making many around them miserable too.  Frowns abound, smiles are scarcer. 

Few people would argue that smiling is bad for you, but new research is showing just how many ways smiling is beneficial to your career and well-being. Here is a short rundown.

WHAT RESEARCH TELL US ABOUT SMILING

Smiling can greatly improve your mood and reduce stress. Even better, your smile doesn’t have to be real, so you can fake it and still get the good results.

Smiling doesn’t just benefit you on the inside. It also works to your advantage from the outside. A study from Penn State University found that people who smile appear to be more likable, courteous, and even competent. This is reason enough to smile at every person you potentially want to do business with.

Aside from your mental state, smiling can also end up saving your life, as Sondra Barrett claims in her book Secrets of Your Cells. The biochemist says that when you let go of tension–an outcome that smiling triggers–your cells let go of their rigidness. According to Barrett’s research, this could end up saving your life. Stress is a big contributor to heart disease, cancer, and other deadly diseases.   

Lifting those facial muscles into a smile is also contagious; if you smile and others smile, everyone in the room becomes a little happier. 

In love relationships, smiling can turn around a negative spiral into a more positive one and remind you that not everything is negative in your relationship.

The other day a friend shared a great story about her son. Here is what she told me:

"My 7-year-old son was playing with one of his neighbor friends. Noticing her drown face he asked if she had a smile. When his friend said 'no', my son replied: 'Here, you can have one of mine!' They were both smiling within seconds."

Maybe we need to make it a practice of giving away smiles to help those that don’t have smiles left!

THE POWER OF A SMILE

Why is a smile so powerful? Because smiling can change your brain! When you smile, your brain is aware of the activity and actually keeps track of it (by noticing you exercised the facial muscles you use for smiling). The more you smile, the more effective you are at breaking the brain’s natural tendency to think negatively. If you smile often enough, you end up rewiring your brain to make positive patterns more often than it does negative ones. 

Scientifically speaking then, smiling more is a great thing for your life. It doesn’t cost you anything to do it and you can actually fake it and get the same big results. Yet, its value is as high as the value of your life!

Your career might even take a turn for the better as productivity increases, your attention span and cognitive abilities are improved, and you exude competence everywhere you go.

Your relationship with your partner might change into a more positive one. Your influence on your children might make them less cranky.

With all of the benefits above, who wouldn’t want to start smiling more?  Successful people don't let others’ negativity take over their day. They can smile and move on. 

If you are overwhelmed with transitions and changes in your life and are frowning more than smiling, try smiling for no reason and you will see how you start feeling better and having more clarity. You can also schedule a free clarity call with Dr. Ada.

REMEMBER. . .

Those who don't have a smile are the ones who need smiles the most. Be like my friend's son. Share one of your smiles. Smiles are contagious too. The more of them you share around, the more people you will see smiling. As a result, the more you will feel like smiling and the more successful you will be. Try it and let us know what happens!