Keep Smiling

Poets have written for centuries about it. Famous painters, like Leonardo de Vinci have intrigued millions by simply hinting at it. Photographers, filmmakers, models and actresses have all tried to harness its mysterious allure and made fortunes in the process from it.

Few things in life can compete with a joyfully beautiful, honest smile. The act of smiling is indeed a marvelous miracle.

Not only is a joyful smile life-affirming, as it turns out, it has amazing health benefits. Decades of medical research have consistently shown that smiling releases dopamine, endorphins and Serotonin in the brain.

They dramatically increase the bloodstream’s white-blood cell count, cause a rapid drop in blood pressure and create a greater uplifting sense of well being.

In fact, the broader the smile, the better the health effects. Even fake smiles will do the trick. They also contract the facial bones, increase blood flow to the frontal lobe and cause the release of dopamine. But, we get the maximum health benefits when our smile stretches across our face causing us to almost squint.

A study by Loma Linda University showed that our bodies are so wired to increase our health by smiling that even the anticipation of a situation that we think will make us laugh and smile, causes our brain to release hormones that super-charge our immune system by 87%.

Smiling is also infectious. It triggers sympathetic reactions in those around us which make them and us feel better. This healthy feedback loop has the immediate effect of creating a brief environmental ecosystem of abundant health and happiness.

So keep smiling, its great for your health, creates a better living environment for you and those that are around you and it makes the world shine even more miraculously.