Surely you know those mornings when you rush to work or school, trip over bags in the hallway and just so you avoid splashing coffee on your bright clothes. Along the way, you will still be delayed, and your level of tolerance of morning stress climbs to the mountain heights, which is manifested by nervous drumming of fingers on the feet or tapping the heel on the ground, for which even Elvis Presley would not have to be ashamed. You run to the office hoping that your boss won't notice that you're (again) late. And suddenly, like a flash out of the blue, someone opens the door for you and smiles kindly at you. That face exudes a warm calm. Time stops for a millisecond and all the tension and stress will subside from you at that moment. It occurs to you that the world can actually be nice, and for a moment you wonder in vain why you are in such a hurry. Eventually, you will remember. Boss, meeting, delay. But the experience will leave you with a haze of perspective and that warm feeling of relaxation. That's the power of one smile.
There are many sayings, folk wisdom and quotes about smiling. He inspired poets, playwrights and painters. But why are those raised corners of the lips and wrinkles next to the eyes so important to us?
Smiling is one of the strongest non-verbal (i.e. non-speech) signals. It is understood by people of all cultures and is often positively responded to by some pets. Moreover, unlike words, it is not possible to fool, "fake". When someone smiles artificially and does not mean it that way, it is usually recognized by others. Therefore, it has a kind of added value of authenticity and credibility, unlike words, and therefore usually has a stronger effect on us than the words spoken. A smile is a strong message that we understand across ages, cultures and other factors.
Without having to learn it, we pass on a lot of different information, such as: "nice to see you", "I'm happy with you", "congratulations", "I'm happy", "I believe you", "it will definitely turn out well", "I'm here with you", "thank you", etc.
If the man who opened the door to our hero in the first paragraph uttered the words "it will be good" and did not smile at it, his speech would hardly have such an effect on the rushing person. A smile transmits much more than mere words can do, because it also carries with it a kind of positive signal from our experience. Smiling shares our pleasant feelings about who we smile at. And the recipient of the smile perceives this as well. Therefore, "receiving a smile from someone" can very easily improve the mood. Not only that, but it can also give us hope, strength or support.
I myself remember the time when I was lying in the hospital after the operation and I was not exactly into the jump adequate to the situation. When the nurse or doctor smiled at me, it was a small wave of hope and assurance that everything would get better, that it made sense to wait patiently for the body to recover. One smile brought me so much. And I know that my experience is shared by many others. Maybe not from the hospital, but from other situations where a smile brought them something truly intrinsically valuable. Do you also have such an experience? (If so, share with us in the comments.)
What I find very interesting, however, is that the improvement of our emotional state is not only brought to us by a situation where someone smiles at us, but also by the very "conjuring up a smile" on our own face causes a similar effect. A study conducted at the University of South Australia showed that once we smile, regardless of the reason, our brain triggers a chemical reaction that directly leads to positive feelings. At the same time, it does not even have to be a sincere smile, it is enough if our facial muscles form a smile on the face. Even in this case, the chemical reaction causing feelings of happiness or optimism will occur. Researchers from the University of South Australia recommend using smiles as a tool for everyday psychohygiene, i.e. to maintain good mental health and health. Furthermore, it turned out that this mechanism can also be used to improve the already developed symptoms of psychological problems. The researchers also found that smiling even influences our interpretation of the world around us. One of the study's authors, Dr. Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, writes: "When your muscles say you're happy, you're more likely to see the world around you in a positive light."
The fact that a smile has the power to change the point of view, to influence others and supposedly to cure all sorts of difficulties is mentioned by people of different cultures and orientations. Former British Home Secretary Herbert L. Samuel is credited with a quote: "The world is like a mirror: Frown at it and frown at you. Czech playwright, director and actor Miroslav Horníček said that "a person who laughs is like a flashlight that charges".
A smile therefore has the potential to improve our mood, perception of the surrounding world and mental health and provides us with honest and pleasant communication. If we want to invest in these values, so little is enough. And perhaps precisely because a smile costs us nothing, we tend to underestimate its importance.
However, it is no wonder that smile is used in many different relaxation or therapeutic techniques, including, for example, yoga or dramatherapy. Or that the Czech psychiatrist Karel Nešpor, who treats anxiety, depression and physical pain with laughter, became famous for his exercises focused on laughter.
If you would like to test whether a smile has the potential to bring a positive change to your daily experience, I offer you the following exercises. I recommend doing it for 21 days in a row, ideally as soon as possible after waking up or just before bedtime.
And if you want to try the acute effect of a smile on your psychological well-being, try to watch some of the instructional videos of Dr. Nešpor on Youtube. Even when sober, it's a real chore not to splash your monitor.
Surely you know those mornings when you rush to work or school, trip over bags in the hallway and just so you avoid splashes of coffee. In a traffic jam, you hope that the boss is in at least a similarly long queue. By the time you enter through the main door of your office building, you will see a relaxing colleague whose level of morning stress looks at yours like a climber from the top of the mountain to the base camp. So you hold the door and smile at him understandingly. It occurs to you that the world can actually be nice when people are warm to each other. And you take that warm pleasant feeling with you to work. One smile has such power.
