“I never will understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.” In the words a woman who devoted her life to selflessness and altruism, Mother Teresa remarks on the importance of a smile. Smiling is one of the most basic human facial expressions, but its purpose is often taken for granted and its benefits are overlooked. Numerous psychological and behavioral studies have been performed to evaluate the effects of smiling on an individual’s success. The results provide quantifiable evidence that an act as simple and transparent as smiling can yield long-term benefits to society. Throughout this paper, I will examine the influence of a smile and how it can improve one’s health, relationships, and professional life.
The act of smiling can has() many unknown benefits to an individual’s personal health and well-being. A 30-year study at UC Berkeley examined student’s yearbook photos and the nature of each person’s smile. Based on one’s smile, the researchers were able to determine the success of their marriage, score on an aptitude test, and how inspiring they would be to others. The sincerity and span of a person’s smile can also be used to predict their longevity. While the correlation between a smile and these variables may seem hard to believe, there is scientific evidence to prove why a smile can provide countless positive benefits. First, smiling suppresses the control we have on our facial muscles by releasing stress and tension and lowering one’s heart rate. It also provides a natural form of happiness by reducing stress-inducing hormones such as cortisol, dopamine, and adrenaline and increasing mood-enhancing hormones such as endorphins. Smiling also stimulates reward mechanisms by allowing us to fee...
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...ext of a full time employee in a stable job, smiling begets happiness which leads to greater performance and productivity, faster promotion, higher income, and better feedback. In a study by iOpener that surveyed 3000 employees, results showed that happier employees were 50% more motivated at work and took 66% less sick leave those who were unhappy.
Smiling is often overlooked in society because although we see it often, we have been trained to mimic the classic, insincere smile we constantly see in the media. The benefits described above can only be attained from a genuine smile that engages the muscles below your eyes. In the quest to improve the state of health in the United States, I would strongly encourage everyone to start by smiling: it is a free, healthy, and attractive way to achieve happiness and build personal and professional relationships.
Begley introduces sources such as Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychology professor, who has studied happiness for twenty-five years, to further the point of her claim. In the article, she accounts an interaction Diener had with Scotland's Parliament and business leaders on the value of using traditional measures to compare what policies makes the country happiest. The Scottish were all in favor of increasing policies that increased wellbeing, but not because they make people happier. "They said too much happiness might not be a good thing, they like being dour, and didn't appreciate being told they should be happier" (555). Diener later concludes that levels of happiness coincide with longer, healthier, relationships. He contrasts this conclusion with an article he cowrote with, stating “once a moderate level of happiness is achieved, further increases can sometimes be detrimental to income, career success, education, and political participation” (556). Diener believes that negative emotions make you “more analytical, more critical, and more innovative” to help direct your thinking. Diener gives much evidence and experience towards Begley’s claim of happiness not being the best for you. Another source Begley uses to back up her claim that
The greatest gift that a person could ever receive is a smile. “Everybody in the world is seeking happiness… Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.” Some say that a smile is a window to your soul, and the reality is a smile can change your mood even if you fake one. Like the psychologist and philosopher William James says, “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together.” Even when there are struggles a smile can change your mood and reduce the pain. Like Carnegie implies, “You must have a good time meeting people if you expect them to have a good time meeting you.” This is very important because you can not expect people to happy around you when you sit with a frown in your face. A smile is a wonderful gift because it cost nothing and brightens anybodies day.
While communicating with another human being, one only has to examine the other’s face in order to comprehend what is being said on a much deeper level. It is said that up to 55 percent of a message’s meaning can be derived from facial expression (Subramani, 2010). These facial manipulations allow thoughts to be expressed in ways that are often difficult to articulate verbally, with the face demonstrating “the thoughts of the mind, and the feelings of the heart” (Singla). Many expressions are said to universal, particularly those showing happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and...
MLA: Wallis, Claudia, et al. “The New Science of Happiness.” Time. 17 Jan. 2005. Academic Search Premier. Yale University Library. 11 Jan. 2006.
“Hey, thanks for telling me,” with a soft voice and light smile. Does it sound familiar to you? Perhaps the response seems good and polite on the surface, but people might be very frustrating deep inside. Truly, the burden of societal expectation forbids people to share their true feeling and opinion, therefore a genuine interaction among people becomes very rare. Although the U.S. government encourages gender equality, but the society remains the same; in reality, society has a higher expectation on women over men. In the article “Why Women Smile”, Cunningham evaluates on how societal expectation and personal goal evolves women’s daily behavior; particularly she focuses on the women’s smile. It’s for the better, women weaponize their smile
77). We all express or encode a feeling with an outward facial expression such as smile or frown, and we decode or interpret these features the same across the board (Aronson, 2013, p.77). According to Aronson (2013) a study was done in New Guinea with a small tribe that had little to no contact with Westerners and when told particular stories had the same six facial expressions as Westerners. It’s interesting because verbal language is vastly diverse between cultures, but that in order for us to understand each other better we have a nonverbal form of communication such as facial
Through a series of assessment tools, she reveals the types of activities that we can commit to doing on a daily basis which will improve our level of happiness. She reinforces the numerous benefits of being happier. Happier people are more sociable and energetic, more charitable and cooperative, and better liked by others. Being happy boosts their immune systems, improves productivity, and can lead to a longer life. It allows them to be more creative and...
Nettle, D. (2005). Happiness: The science behind your smile. (First ed., pp. 1-6). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
By assessing the personal meaning of events, emotion comes up. What’s more, positive emotions have not only a role of marking happiness, but also a function to continue
Laughter is an essential human phenomenon. Smiling in response to pleasant physical conditions occurs in early development, usually in the first month of life. As a motor reflex, laughter is usually present by the time a child is 4 months old. By the age of eighteen months, a child smiles once every six minutes, and by four years of age, the rate increases to one smile every one and one-third minutes. The ratio of laughs to smiles increases from one laugh to every ten smiles as eighteen months to one every three smile at four years. The individual differences in the rate of both laughing and smiling become greater as the children grow older. (Stearns, 1972) The instinctual development of smiling and laughing occurs very early in life, suggesting a high level of importance.
Only in recent years have psychologists begun to appreciate the benefits of happiness and positive emotion — benefits that include everything from enhanced creativity to improved immune-system function. Dr. Barbara Fredrickson at the University of North Carolina, a leader in the field of positive psychology, posed the question, “What good are positive emotions?” and came up with the following possibilities.
He also incorporated the measure of individual-level happiness of employees which could include work engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Fisher (2010) particularly looked into how happiness is influenced by both short-lived events and chronic conditions in the task, job, and organization in the workplace. Happiness is also influenced by stable attributes of individuals such as personality, as well as the fit between what the job and organization and also provide and the individual’s expectations, needs and preferences (Fisher, 2010). In order to implement Positive Psychology, an organization has to take into account that their employees have different personalities and that their expectations and needs differ from one another. Every person is going to react and respond differently due to their differences in personality, so organizations must take this factor into account when creating interventions to increase happiness levels in their employees. Employees can also find happiness in engagement to their role as well as how satisfied they feel with their job. An organization can increase their employees’ happiness levels by making sure their employees actually enjoy their job. If an individual finds enjoyment
It is important that employees do not fear for their jobs, are stressed of their tasks and their deadlines, etc. Employee happiness should be one of the most important topics for any organizations. If they are happy, they are more likely to focus on their own tasks, work hard, and create a good environment. If they are stressed they are more likely to make mistakes and influence the environment
Some researchers decided that beauty is not really about what’s on your face but beauty can be determined by the small things you do. According to Edward Morrison, how good a person looks determines how attractive a person is. Doing things like blinking, nodding and tilting the h...
Research has shown that the smile is constantly rated as the number one thing that makes other people feel emotionally better. It has also found that smiling can be as stimulating as getting up to 16,000 Pounds Sterling (about 23,700 USD). [Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/03/22/the-untapped-power-of-smiling/] When you see someone smile, you smile. When you smile, your brain gets the messages of happiness and feel good chemicals are released. So, make smiling an important part of your routine on how to make someone