You Were Born To Be Happy, But Are You As Happy As You Want To Be?

You Were Born To Smile

What could be easier than simply smiling? Can we really learn to practice it as a skill? Some people who spend time developing their "inner" and "outer" smile have experienced spontaneous healing from psychological problems or diseases. What is the power behind this simple human characteristic and is it a key for us learning how to be happy?

We're all born with the ability to smile. Although it is simple, the smile is a gentle tool that develops over time and ultimately helps us to accept all experiences in life at their most profound level. It also helps us to protect and preserve our energy (Link to Unlimited Life Energy) - our life force.

Where does a smile come from? Should we ask Leonardo Da Vinci, who painted the Mona Lisa? Some experts think it is his self-portrait, disguised as a woman to amplify the mystery of her smile. Our impulse to smile is certainly, at it's depth, a mystery. But the key to engaging this mysterious smile can be found by the you, not just great artists.

Smiling Is Associated With Feelings Of Peace And Happiness

Smiling can melt energy patterns that we might feel are stuck or frozen inside us. It can reach and dissolve patterns that have frustrated other forms of therapy, if done with proper relaxation and expectation.

Studies have confirmed that babies have an innate ability to smile. As an adult, we use our smile less and less. We start to control ourselves and lose our smile and happiness. But practicing smiling is a way to recover our natural smiling ability, and regain the happy and innocent perspective once lost to external stresses. Clearly, babies and infants tend to smile for no apparent reason. However when adults do that - smile for no apparent reason - people just think you're nuts.

Do We Know How To Be Happy When We Are Born?

When we look at adults smiling, we rarely get the same feeling of purity as within a young child, even if the smile is authentic. It's because adults have acquired many layers of personality and physical tension, which has either taken away or covered up our original expression.

A frown is a form of self-inflicted chronic stress. Over time, it begins to weigh on us, as if we were wearing our resistance to life like a big heavy chain around our neck. Unfortunately, we often inflict this frown on those around us. If you look into the mirror of your life, you can see if this is the case for you. We each need to ask ourselves, am I ready to throw away this heavy yoke and begin living more lightly, guided by happiness and peace?

For a person who wants to be more peaceful, happy, healthy and positive, knowing How To Be Happy and practicing smiling is certainly a habit that should be developed to it's fullest depth.

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity."
--Joseph Addison

You Don't Need Anything To Smile About...

...your friends, your pet, your body, your organs, your thoughts, your problems, the stars, the planet, your house, your computer... everything material and non-material, and everything internal and external can be smiled at. There doesn't have to be a reason to smile although there are plenty of good ones!

A genuine smile that is both inner and outer resonates with everything and everyone at all times.

Smiling is a kind of silent talking. It helps to develop inner faith and trust in life itself. So if you ever feel doubt, worry, depression (Link to Cures For Depression), or any negative emotion, give yourself permission to smile. Do it for yourself.

Oh, and if you didn't already notice, you are learning right now how to be happy.

We come into this world crying, while those around us smile.
We leave this world smiling, while those around us cry.
- Confucius, 460 b.c.

When And Why You Should Smile
You can smile for unlimited periods of time... 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, perhaps you will choose to smile your entire life.

You can smile for free. That's right, smiling is free.

You can smile while doing anything at all... reading, exercising, business meeting, driving, eating, meditating... there are no limits really. Can you smile while you cry or while you're angry? Of course you can! That's one of the best things to do to turn negative reactions into positive ones. What about sleep, can you smile while you're asleep? Yes. Try it and practice. You will feel great!

The application of the smile is endless, from the simple to the sublime. Before you eat a meal, try smiling from your heart into the food on your plate to make it easier for your body to energetically digest.

People use the smile in stressful daily work situations, to assist loved ones going through the dying process, or help children going through difficult emotional transitions. It can also be used to help you communicate with non-human forms of life, like animals, plants, oceans and mountains. Smiling helps you to connect with the universe energy, and when you know how to be happy, you feel so good.

On A Deeper Note: What's The Difference Between Smiling And Happiness?

Smiling is more on the physical level. Happiness (Link to What Does My Future Hold) is a state of being, it's not an action. Smiling is a physical expression of happiness. It is easy to see if someone is smiling, but it's more difficult to see if someone is truly happy. Happiness is from the inside and smiling is what it looks like from the outside.

When people are very happy, they just smile naturally. If you're depressed, it feels impossible to smile. Or if you have lots of problems and focus on yourself, it's also very hard to smile. Yet smiling is a high tech way of reaching happiness, improving health, and clearing the mind.

Is It Better To Smile More, Or Laugh More?

We should note here that smiling is very different from laughing. "Laughter is the best medicine" the saying goes, and laughing certainly releases tension and is good for the body in a number of different ways. According to Chinese medicine, if someone laughs too frequently or too loudly they may have excess heart chi and are unconsciously trying to release it. Laughter is more of belly centered emotional release than smiling.

Laughter is more excited than smiling... it has more emotion. While true smiling is more an expression of inner peace.

Smiling is more subtle than laughter, a very inward and sustainable experience. Someone who smiles continuously is not considered in excess, assuming it is not a "fake" outer smile just for show. Smiling is less about emotions and more about subtle feeling. Smiling cultivates this feeling to a high level, focusing on the spiritual joy that arises from our essence.

It seems that there is a growing body of evidence that our brains "listen" to our bodies to develop our mood and emotion. With relation to smiling, one study that was summarized a few years back says:

"This study examined the effects of forced laughter on mood and compared laughter with two other possible mood-improving activities, smiling and howling. While howling did not substantially improve mood, both smiling and laughing did. Moreover, laughter seemed to boost positive affect more than just smiling by 22 adults." - Neuhoff & Schaefer, Psychol Rep Dec 91, 1079-80 (2002)

It is proven that laughter helps to release stress, thereby bringing a sensation of feeling happy and light. But honestly, how would you feel after spending your entire day laughing out belly laughs? No doubt, a little exhausted, correct? Spending your day with genuine and relaxed smiles, on the other hand, leaves you feeling more peaceful, balanced, happy and clear in your mind. For sure, smiling is a powerful tool for sustaining your energy and reaching longevity (Link to Natural Rejuvenation).

The Effect That Smiling Has On Your Body

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, smiling moves facial points that are connected with the stomach meridian. In other words, your stomach relaxes and becomes more soothed when smiling. Some experts claim that certain key energy points on the back of the head may also become more opened due to smiling. And due to its proximity to other major meridian channels starting near the top of the head, such as the small intestine and the large intestine (governing proper digestion), and the triple burner (governing body temperature), smiling may indirectly affect these as well.

Conversely, frowning, furrowed brows, or unhappy faces naturally close off these energy points, thereby reducing the amount of universe energy which can enter and flow through the body and organs. Consider the metaphor that states that cells are likened to an oyster... when a cell in your body is angry or fearful (a negative state), it "clams up" and closes off energy flow and the receiving of fresh, universe energy.

Cells can learn how to be happy. When a cell is in a happy state, it naturally opens to receive new energy and reveal the pearl of beauty inside. Your body contains trillions of vital cells, so let them open up and receive the most fresh universe energy available.

Your Mind Is Clear When You're Truly Smiling

An interesting point to make is that "thinking" creates the same furrowed brow and tense face as frowning. This observation agrees with the statement made by many yoga, qigong and alternative medicine practitioners "Thinking blocks the flow of energy." What they are saying is that thinking causes one to identify with the world of form, which attaches us to emotion, which then causes the cells to clam up and diminish their ability to receive universe energy. The mind and our thoughts are always less powerful than universe energy.

This is challenging for chronic-thinking societies to accept. Similarly, Eckhart Tolle states that consciousness can survive without mind (thought), yet mind cannot survive without consciousness. Most of us are led to believe that if we do not use our minds in a memory-enhancing way, such as what is taught in all left-brained education facilities across the US, we will lose our ability to think. However, the opposite is closer to the truth. If we learn to relax more, clear our thoughts, and make better use of energy, then we can receive the best of both worlds.

Smile, Even (especially) If You Don't Feel Like It

Although a fake smile can be very uncomfortable, it sends your body and soul a message that happiness is good. So learning how to be happy, and actually practicing how to be happy is in fact very, very good!

Smiling may be the fastest and best way to change your attitude, connect with people and give benefit to your body. Like relaxation, smiling works to counteract the effects of pressure and stress. By forcing ourselves to smile even if we "don't feel like it", we shift our body and mind into a more positive and receptive state. Like a switch, smiling can actually change your mood. So put a smile on, even if you don't feel like it, and pretty soon you'll be smiling for real.

How one famous director described a genuine smile... "The way light hits the face, no matter how complex, is nothing compared to the subtle intricacy of the way light radiates out from the inside of that face - the light, that is, of consciousness."

How Does Smiling Fit Into The Future?

Smiling and being happy will be our new nature in the future. This is because people will be more connected with universe energy and not focused on money problems, relationship problems, career problems, or health problems. Our appreciation for life and health (Link to Telling the Future of Health) will be much higher than now. Businesses, services, families... everyone will be wearing a natural smile - it will be the fashion of our face.

Becoming happy and expressing it through our smile now is what will open the door for people to step into the future. By stepping towards the future now, you begin living it now! New education systems with new values and higher life standards will play a major role in teaching people of all ages how to achieve health, happiness and peace.

__________

Can Smiling Make You Happy?

Kleinke, C.L., Peterson, T.R., & Rutledge, T.R. (1998). Effects of self-generated facial expressions on mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 272-279.

Overview:

Theories of Emotion
An emotion, such as happiness or sadness, is a subjective experience that is associated with some physiological change in arousal and some characteristic behavior. For example, a feeling of happiness is generally accompanied by a decrease in heart rate, indicating a decrease in arousal, and a smile, an overt behavior. Fear is generally associated with, among other physiological effects, an increase in heart rate and clenched teeth.

Do we smile because we are happy or do are we happy because we smile? Theories of emotion differ in terms of whether the emotion leads to physiological and behavioral changes or the other way around. According to one theory, the facial feedback theory which has its roots in the writings and theories of Charles Darwin and William James, emotion can be regulated by behavior, particularly by facial expression.

Try smiling. Do you feel happy? Try frowning. Do you feel grumpy? Research from the 1970s and 1980s suggests you do - at least physiologically. In one study, participants who mimicked a fearful expression showed an increase in heart rate and skin temperature. Kleinke, Peterson, and Rutledge (1998) added to this theory by examining how mimicking facial expressions might influence mood.

Article Summary
A number of research studies have shown that making a facial expression, such as a smile, can produce effects on the body that are similar to those that result from the actual emotion, such as happiness.

Kleinke, Peterson, and Rutledge (1998) two scientific questions that extend the work on facial feedback theories of emotion:

Do people who are more self-conscious show stronger mood effects from making facial expressions than people who are less self-conscious?
Does facial expression have a stronger effect on mood when the person can see his/or her expression?

To study these questions, Kleinke et al. had students view photographs or slides of people with either positive facial expressions (smiling) or negative facial expressions (frowning). Participants in the control group just viewed the photos or slides, participants in the expression group were instructed to mimic the facial expression, and participants in the expression-mirror group matched the expression with the aid of looking in a mirror.

Mood was measured using a mood scale in which participants indicated their degree of agreement with statements reflecting their mood "right now." The mood scale was administered before and after viewing the photographs/slides and change in mood was used as the dependent variable. In the first experiment, the participants also completed a self-consciousness scale in which they indicated their agreement with statements such as "I'm always trying to figure myself out."

As found in other studies, facial expressions did affect the participants' mood: Mood did not change in the control group who simply viewed the expressions. Participants who matched the positive expressions experienced a positive change in mood (they were in a more positive mood after making positive facial expressions) and participants who matched the negative expressions experienced a negative change in mood.

Participants who were more self-conscious showed greater changes in mood following making the positive or negative expressions. Kleinke et al. conclude that this finding indicates that self-conscious people are more in-tune with themselves and therefore more responsive to mood-inducting experiences.

Participants who watched their expressions in a mirror also showed a greater change in mood. It seems that the visual feedback adds to the proprioceptive self-awareness of mood-related facial expression.

Overall, this study adds to the facial feedback theory of emotion by demonstrating that a personality characteristic of self-consciousness and visual feedback both add to the effect of facial expression on emotion.