The Journal of Motivation and Emotion reports that whether or not a person is smiling in their college yearbook photos can be a strong indicator of marital satisfaction or divorce based on two studies conducted at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
In the first study 655 alumni had their college photos ranked by how big their smile was (2=no smile, 10=beaming grin).
In the second study 61 adults 55 years and older had 8 photos from the ages of 5-22 reviewed.
Both studies found that the bigger your smile, the more likely you are to be still be married compared to the non-smilers.
First of all, while it makes a great case for the importance of smiling, do we really need a study to know that smiles attract and sustain healthier relationships. Just look at two people in love or best friends walking down the street.
Second, has your mind wandered back to your own photos? Mine did. We didn’t sit for formal portraits for a yearbook, but I do have a candid photo of me beaming walking off the stage after accepting my diploma, and…I was divorced three years later. So many possible interpretations in hindsight, however, what’s most important for you and me is that we smile more often and show bigger smiles with our loved ones now.
Take today to the top! Watch the 3 minute video “Smile and Move”
When I first saw the headline “Smile and Move,” I thought excitedly, “Oh, that’s great! Someone’s taken the Smile Diet and Body Shake that I teach in my seminars to raise your enthusiasm and body energy and they turned it into a video! Brilliant! I want to know more!”
As it turns out, “Smile and Move” is another great application - also in The Smile Diet - of focusing on using your strengths and passion to serve others with the same intended result as The Smile Diet: Seek out what inspires you, appreciate what inspires you, and enthuse the world with what inspires you every day. Enthusiasm is your Spirit’s inspiration in action.
The story behind “Smile and Move” makes it even better. What a great way to remind yourself of the power of your smile and your ability to move into positive action and help children and employees do the same by focusing on your greater vision for your actions.
There are also some great tips on the website to create a “Smile and Move” workplace. Here are two of my favorites:
Greet interruptions from team members and colleagues with a smile. It’s important that they feel comfortable coming to you when they need something.
Avoid personal gossip in the office, and encourage your team to do the same. Strike an upbeat tone to help people focus on one another’s accomplishments.
Take your day to the top! Smile and Move! Mary
For more “Smile and Move” tips or to read the story behind “Smile and Move,” click here.
The Ninety-Second Smile Challenge: What a great way to help another person, particularly a child, understand that they have the power to change their mood and that their energy is contagious. From a blog entry by Billy Obenauer
“Okay,” I said. “Here’s the challenge. I’m going to set my watch for a minute and a half,” I told him, “and I want you to force yourself to smile for the entire time. At the end of ninety seconds, you can do whatever you want, but I promise that you’ll be in a good mood. Do you want to give it a try?”Read more
Since creating the 21-Day Smile Diet several years ago, I’ve recommended that people wake up every morning and practice the 16-Second Smile. But this is first time that I’ve heard someone suggest a 90-second smile. No question that the longer you hold a smile, the more your physiology changes for the better. But most people will not allow themselves that opportunity unless they’re asked to do it. And even then, there is often resistance.
Over 20 years ago I was in a seminar with a speaker who had us partner up and stare at each other for 90 seconds and not say a word or make any noise. I laughed and thought, “What’s the big deal?” OMG! Try it sometime! Especially with someone you don’t know well or have never met before. One of the most embarrassingly uncomfortable 90 seconds I can remember on record. And the interesting thing is that the person I was partnered with became a friend and we are still in touch although we have always lived more than 2500 miles apart. We both attribute the reason to that 90 seconds in time when we peered into the windows of each other’s soul’s. I wonder now, how that 90 seconds might have been easier and more enjoyable if the instructor had said, “Smile at each other for 90 seconds.”
Hmmm…also makes me wonder how our day might turn out if we started our morning dressing ritual with a 90-second smile in the mirror and the words “Thank You.”
This is such a fun song by Dan Zanes guaranteed to make you smile. Take a 2 minute break, turn up your speakers and keep smiling while you’re listening. When you consciously smile while you’re listening to and watching something you enjoy, you crank up your internal endorphin machine that helps relieve more stress from your body and increases your happiness level.
SMILE (lyrics) by Dan Zanes
every time I think of you,
smile for a while
that’s the one thing you always do
smile smile smile
acting out stories and hugging your friends
smile for a while
i know what i’ll do when i see you again
i’m gonna smile smile smile
chorus:
like ripples in a pond
or runners who pass the baton
good feelings will go on for mile after mile
and your big heart circles the world
every time that you smile
doing those voices and telling your jokes
smile for a while
your crazy hairdos and your thrift shop coats
smile smile smile
every time you break into a broadway song
smile for a while
the whole world starts singing along
smile smile smile
well you know i love you and i’m glad you’re my friend
smile for a while
you know what i’ll do when i see you again
smile smile smile
What you do is so important. And when you forget it, watch this short video clip, “Validation.”
Validating yourself or someone else with a smile and a compliment is one of the fastest ways to make your life better and someone else’s. My friend and gifted art therapist Donna Otter just sent me a YouTube video “Validation.” It is SO GOOD that it even resurrected this blog after a year of silence! “Validation” is one of the best short films I’ve ever seen. I smiled, I laughed, I cried - all within 15 minutes. I realized again how much we all need each other’s smiles and encouraging words every day wherever we find ourselves - waiting lines are a great place to start, and especially the DMV office.
You just never know when your smile will change someone’s life. Kudos to the creators of this film. If everyone followed the heart and humor of Hugh Newman (the lead character in this film), there would be peace everywhere on our precious planet, or at the very least a lot more happy people floating around. Peace starts with a smile. Watch the video (as of this writing there have been 969,066 views!), and then go give someone a genuine 16 second smile and tell them how great they are. I’m sending you a 16-second smile right now. YOU are great!
“Sometimes your joy is
the source of your smile,
And sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
One of the reasons I’m so enthusiastic about the 16 Second Smile is because it turns you into a JOY MACHINE. You will literally FEEL MORE JOY when you smile more often and for longer periods of time.
Have you ever noticed that most people smile for only a 1-3 seconds?
By smiling a big enough smile to create eye crinkles and holding it for at least 16 seconds, you release endorphins into your body. Take a look at the photo below and notice the lines around this man’s eyes. Eye Crinkles. That’s how you can tell if you’re getting the physical benefits of a smile.
And doesn’t he LOOK HAPPY? It feels good just looking at the smile in his eye. That good feeling is the release of endorphins (pleasure chemicals in your endocrine system) into your body. Instantaneously! Isn’t that awesome!?
If you continue to allow yourself to keep smiling and really feel the good feelings, your mind starts to think thoughts that match your good feelings, which can lead to ideas and actions that create a burst of joy. And then more joy. And more joy.
Simply by choosing to smile for 16 seconds, you create a positive cycle of joyful energy. And even better news is that the more you do it, you create a brain pattern that memorizes the experience, which makes it easier to access when you need it.
How’s that for beating depression, anger, frustration, resistance, disappointment, rejection, and every other negative emotion that visits on occasion? You can control how you feel and a 16-Second Smile can help you do that!
Give the 16-Second Smile a try right now and see what I mean.
“How did you EVER lose 50 pounds in less than a year?!” one woman asked another. The other woman responded, “It was really simple; I ate a little bit less on my plate every day, I exercised just a little bit more every day, and most importantly, I think what really helped me is this: I made sure I did something fun for myself every day.”
I overheard the above conversation at a conference in Kansas City where I was the Keynote Speaker and it set off a revolution in my mind! Do things that help you smile more often and you can lose weight! What a concept! Not only might you lose weight, but you might also lose a lot of stress, maybe even depression, or anger, an unhealthy relationship or habit.
And imagine what you could gain! A healthier body, a happier mindset, more wealth, more joy every day?
The Smile Diet Blog is about helping turn your funk into fun, feeling more enthusiasm in everything you do, and choosing to look for and live experiences that make you smile as often as possible through helpful tips, inspirational quotes, enlightening and entertaining stories of real people, great articles, links, resources, and empowering action steps. So come back often, post your favorite ways to to bring a smile to your face and others, and share this blog with your friends.
It’s been a very challenging week here in San Diego with the wildfires. There was a mandatory evacuation in my neighborhood on Monday and I’m grateful to say that I returned home on Thursday and dirty windows never looked so good. I send an ocean full of loving smiles to the firefighters who have worked so hard to protect us, to those who lost their homes, and to anyone dealing with painful loss.
After receiving an email from a woman who shared that The Smile Diet Blog entry on May 12 brought her comfort as she was searching for something to help her deal with her mother’s ovarian cancer, I found a wonderful reminder about the value of a smile. Blessings and strength to “L’ and her mom.
“A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it. Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away. Some people are too tired to give you a smile. Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.” - Author Unknown
His 7 points are great, AND by adding a 16-SECOND SMILE to every action he suggests, you will increase the level of endorphins in your body and send a stronger “feel good” message from your brain to your body that will help you feel even better.
Here are his 7 tips:
1. Laugh more. [MM Note: Did you ever realize that laughter begins with a SMILE and is the most intense SMILE you can create?]
2. Consider using the amino acid and nonprescription SAM-e to boost your mood. [MM Note: Be sure to read the fine print. SAM-e can’t be taken if you’re already on anti-depressants.]
3. Go to a hands-on healer. [MM note: And SMILE while you’re being worked on.]
4. Do lunges and squats to activate your natural youth hormones. [MM Note: This is new information to me; all I know is that squats and lunges are two exercises I don’t like to do but know they strengthen my legs and core. These definitely require SMILING to help make them easier.]
5. Breathe more deeply and more often. [MM Note: Here’s where a 16-second SMILE really pays off. You live longer and with more joy when you SMILE while breathing.]
6. Smell the joy. Aromatherapy can lift depression. [MM Note: And do a 16-second SMILE while you’re smelling to increase the positive experience.]
7. Keep fresh blooming flowers around you. [MM Note: And whenever you look at the blooms, SMILE a 16-second SMILE to deepen the pleasure.
Great ideas. Thanks Dr. Mao! Check out Dr. Mao’s book Secrets of Longevity and SMILE while you’re reading it.
“Here’s a sales tip you can take to the bank on your way to becoming rich. Telephone sales tip - use a 5 X 7 mirror positioned next to your telephone to make sure you’re smiling throughout the entire sales call. It makes a huge difference. You’ll always make more money When you’re smiling!“~ Jim Meisenheimer
This is great advice from one of my colleagues in the National Speakers Association and a leading sales expert Jim Meisenheimer. And even more valuable than making money, by smiling at yourself in a mirror, you’ll also be giving yourself positive validation, which leads to everything good. I’ve kept a mirror next to my phone and computer since I first started my business and when I use it, guess what, it works.
The Journal of Motivation and Emotion reports that whether or not a person is smiling in their college yearbook photos can be a strong indicator of marital satisfaction or divorce based on two studies conducted at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
The Ninety-Second Smile Challenge: What a great way to help another person, particularly a child, understand that they have the power to change their mood and that their energy is contagious. From a blog entry by 
This is great advice from one of my colleagues in the National Speakers Association and a leading sales expert Jim Meisenheimer. And even more valuable than making money, by smiling at yourself in a mirror, you’ll also be giving yourself positive validation, which leads to everything good. I’ve kept a mirror next to my phone and computer since I first started my business and when I use it, guess what, it works.
