Now is the Perfect Time for Fake Smiles
A simple and free way to boost your mood
Things totally suck right now. Let’s not beat around the bush. The world is in various stages of lockdown, but for those of you who are still seeing other humans, either in person or online, throw on a smile.
As Miranda Lambert’s Mama would apparently say, “Don’t matter how you feel it only matters how you look.”
On a serious note, it actually does matter how you feel, so if you’re sinking towards a dangerous state, pretending to be okay when you’re really not isn’t the answer. I’m not talking about hiding depression or anxiety, I’m talking about donning a big smile when you don’t really want to.
Benefits of smiling
I’m sure we’ve all heard stories about it using more muscles to frown than smile, but smiling can also help you recover faster from stressful situations. An experiment that involved people either smiling a little, smiling a lot or not at all, found the response to the stressful situation similar, but the smiling people’s heart rate returned to normal more quickly.
As for anecdotal evidence, we all know that when someone smiles at us we’re tempted to smile back. For those living in places where mask-wearing is common at the moment, you’ve probably noticed the…
