Smiling is your business card...

A few months back one of the JUICE articles I sent out was from Forbes titled “The Untapped Power of Smiling.”  It was a very good read solidifying something I had believed in for years now.  Smiling is one of the most underrated yet misread signals in the world.  Smiling has a way to carry you thru the most challenging segments in your life and can make a dramatic difference in your overall outlook.

UC Berkeley did a 30 year study on smiling and examined the smiles of students from an old yearbook.  What they found was that by measuring the smiles the researchers were able to predict how fulfilling and happy their life would be, how long their marriages would last and how well they would score on standardized tests.  The ones with the widest and biggest smiles graded out higher than the others!

One of our most powerful gifts we have is smiling – the positive energy it gives off can impact any person in any social situation… and it all starts off when were born – did you know that we come out of the womb smiling and even blind babies respond to the sound of a human voice by smiling!

Smiling also stimulates our brain in a way that even chocolate cannot.  British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars or winning $25,000! Smiling also has some therapeutic effects and helps reduce stress and increase health and moods.  It also has the power to make us look attractive to other people. When we smile we not only appear more like-able and courteous we are actually perceived to be more competent!

The more I learned about smiling the more I realized that it's a simple and powerful way to improve not only my life but also the lives of others!  So now I know that to look attractive, competent, to improve my life and marriage, to reduce my stress, to help others feel great and healthier and feel as good as if I've eaten 2,000 chocolate bars and found 25 grand in my house - all I have to do is SMILE!