Jul 4, 2021
How To Be Kind Through Your Smile
The beautiful smile experiment
“DO THE KINDS OF THINGS THAT COME FROM YOUR HEART. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.”~Morrie Schwarts
We all know that a thing of beauty is a joy forever and that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Isn’t it interesting how the perception of beauty changes from person to person and heart to heart.
Today I will share with you an act of beauty that also spreads kindness all around us.
The Beautiful Smile Experiment
Being an inquisitive human being, and in general, as an occupational hazard of being a psychologist, I love exploring human behavior. So, I experimented with what spreading kindness through a beautiful smile would really mean, and how it feels deep down in my heart. And this is what I came up with:
A Beautiful Smile
Now, smiling isn’t such a big deal. We all smile, so many times in the day. Sometimes we smile when we have found something funny, sometimes when something nice happens, sometimes we smile at our own silliness and sometimes we smile as a greeting to another person. And most of the time we smile out of courtesy.
Smiles always come back
Always always, a smile that’s from the heart will have a boomerang effect. If you simply smile for the sake of smiling it isn't going to be reciprocated.
The Experiment
So, as an experiment in spreading kindness, I started smiling more. I mean really smiling from the heart. The kind that makes even your own heart swell with happiness.
I started smiling with feeling, not out of courtesy. At the grocery store clerk, at the building watchman, at the neighbors, at any living thing I came across. I also started smiling at the pigeons that come to my balcony and the trees, flowers, and plants. Think of me as weird, but I actually felt those birds smiling back!
Conclusion to my smiling experiment
Ok, I must’ve done this for like, just two days, and already everything around me is suddenly becoming beautiful. Not only that, all those smiles I was giving away were coming back to me in the form of pure beautiful love. That feeling is so indescribable that I continued this experiment all through the month.
Now, I never ever courtesy smile. I truly smile from the heart. Because I know, maybe my smile isn’t picture perfect like those toothpaste commercials, but I feel that simple smile of mine doing its job of spreading BEAUTY everywhere it goes.
One good smile will have a domino effect
The person you’re smiling at will feel that genuine love with which you’re beaming away and will smile back. In turn, he/she/it will smile at someone else because your smile just made them happy. And this will continue…I saw it happen.
At the grocers-the clerk seemed in a mood, or rather no mood. But, when I reached the counter, I smiled at her and so did my little one. Instantly her face beamed up and she started smiling and chatting away. Even from under the covid mask she could see(and feel) our eyes smile. After she finished with us, she actually greeted the next customer with a beaming smile too!
See domino effect!
Imagine a world full of Happy Smiley People. How BEAUTIFUL is that?
Smiling Beautifully is Kindness in Action
A simple heart smile is such a needed kind act in today’s day and age. Where everyone is so stressed about everything. It not only makes you beautiful but makes everything and everyone around you feel beautiful too!
It's free. It's easy. It's always available in abundance. And who doesn't love to smile?
Smile and Spread Beautiful Kindness.
Our world needs all the BEAUTIFUL positive energy generated from that beautiful smile of yours.
***Now its YOUR turn: Have you ever tried smiling from your heart lately? Did you feel the kindness come back to you? Share your thoughts in the comments.***
With Love,
Zeenat.
Zeenat Merchant Syal is a Practicing Counseling Psychologist & Spiritual Counselor. She writes on Healing the Mind, Heart & Soul through Positivity on Positive Provocations & offers Online Counseling there too.
This story was brought to you by Spread the Ripple. We are a publication dedicated to kindness. Kindness is our superpower. Read more stories and come and write with us here:
