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I learned a lot about smiling today. At work I was given an awesome new writing project and task. I always leap to new tasks and challenges because I find them to be fun and help me get through my day. This project was sent in from a doctor, asking me to write a blog from to medical articles about the importance of your smile and the effects having a healthy and straight smile will have on your oral health and life. That seemed odd to me at first. I mean, how many people think of their smile and a doctor in the same sentence? I know I don’t. However, after reading I discovered many interesting points.

One was about first impressions. We all know first impressions are important. However, I have never stopped to think about my smile. I usually think about my clothing, or my hair because I want to look professional. I never once thought about my smile. However, when I think back on other people I have met I realized the first thing I remembered about them was in fact, their smile. If a person is smiling I feel much more relaxed around that person. However, my research continued…

I ended up finding this amazing quote from Mother Teresa, who said “I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.” Well, I have known that a smile can go a long way. I believe that to be true. I know I have had a hard day and some random stranger smiled at me, which made me feel better. How could someone else smile, make me feel better? Hmmmmm, that question lead me to this:

Charles Darwin theorized in The Origin of the Species that, (and I’m paraphrasing here) the act of smiling is what makes us feel better, rather than us smiling because we feel happy. That is, us physically smiling will help us feel better, rather than the other way around. There are other tests and theories that have found truth to this. They say smiling is one of the most natural reflexes we have since birth. Even babies are found to be smiling in the womb of their mother according to other studies from Wayne State University. They say smiling simulates not only yourself but others around you.

I always felt I smile because of what I’m doing, or something happy is going on in my life. And here I have had it backward all my life. It’s not the place or events taking place that is causing us to smile, it’s the physical act of smiling, and it’s contagious when you are around friends and family and even strangers. That is why I believe strangers can make us smile without saying a word.

My aunt use to tell me: “Laura, you can choose to be happy or choose to be sad.” I didn’t always understand this because when you lose a loved one or something bad happens it can be horrific and very sad, it is something I know I have struggled with. What makes me wonder now is maybe that is how you start choosing to be happy? If you can choose to be happy, and all those years I wondered how do you make that choice when you feel so sad like you would rather curl up and hide or die, maybe this is the answer? It all starts with the most basic of instincts: the smile. How obvious, how simple, yet how true. Something to think about anyway.