07/10/2023
TODAY IS .... WORLD SMILE DAY
Did you know that when you smile your internal physiology assumes things are well in the world? Ok, so it doesn’t literally work like that, but the bullet point take-away is that a smile acts as a feedback loop to your neurochemistry, signalling that you are safe and secure, resulting in reductions in your cortisol level.
Now here’s the weird thing, the body can’t tell the difference between a genuine or false smile, so even if you are only pretending to smile, you still get the "good vibe" benefit.
Of course, smiling is also an important part of social bonding. Let’s be honest, we all prefer folks who smile at us. As an interesting aside, as an undergraduate, my thesis was on pre-school children’s preferences when choosing photos of their age mates, an interesting number selected those with ‘teeth’ i.e. they were smiling. So it looks like we start young in our preference to hang out with the smiley people.
Today then you are going to smile – consciously smile for 5-10 minutes. Now, if you feel a bit daft, you can do it in a toilet cubicle, or facing a mirror. But you know to get the full impact and benefit, why not just SMILE at those around you and share how proud you feel about having completed your week of well-being?
GET GRINNING FOLKS!
As ever, smiles Dr. Anne
