Don’t Hold Back the Smiles!

As you know the byline to this blog is “How happy do I dare to be?” Today I went to see my daughter’s class perform the play ‘The Ballad of Saloman Pavey’. It was wonderful – they were all so enthusiastic and clearly having a lot of fun. On my way home I found myself wanting to smile ‘out loud’ but resisting it because I didn’t want to look kooky.

Isn’t that interesting? It made me wonder how often we do that – suppress a smile. What if we didn’t? What if we unashameably just let loose with the smiles whenever and wherever we felt like it? It made me come up with a new resolution:

I promise myself that I will no longer disallow a smile.

I just did some very quick online research into smiling and of course there are all sorts of quoted benefits – internal and external. Notably when we smile we immediately improve our energy and, externally, we are much more attractive to others. Not rocket science but something, I suspect, we forget.

Another concept I like is that of the ‘Inner Smile’. This is conjuring up the thought of a smile to soothe ourselves inwardly. Here’s a lovely guided mediatation I found that uses this:

http://www.themeditationpodcast.com/episode_11.html

Also try using the inner smile to direct towards someone else. I love this one and have used it quite often in the past. The idea is that you sit, (say in a doctor’s waiting room), and turn your attention to someone in the room. Without needing to look at them you can smile lovingly and inwardly towards them, sending them warmth and good feelings. It’s also really effective if you are about to meet someone who you might be conflicted about. Just approach them with an inner smile and the whole dynamic will change for the better.

Smile. Smile. Smile. You know it can only do good to you and those around you!