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Every Monday Matters: Show your smile By Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT)
A smile is a universal expression of happiness and recognized as such by all cultures.
A smiling person is seen to be more pleasant, attractive, sincere, sociable and competent.
Smiling or even seeing somebody smile releases endorphins that work in the brain to give an overall feeling of well-being.
Happy people generally don't get sick as often.
People are born with the ability to smile. Even babies who are born blind smile.
Adults laugh approximately 15 times per day, while children laugh about 400 times a day.
It takes only 17 muscles to smile, compared to 43 muscles to frown.
TAKE ACTION TODAY
1. Smile at everyone you see today.
2. Keep track of how many times you smile and laugh today.
3. If you are having trouble smiling, here are a few suggestions to help: Make faces at yourself in the mirror, shake your body like it's laughing from the inside, jump on your bed, hug someone you love, or visit a pet store.
4. At the end of your day of smiling, notice how you feel and whether people acted differently around you.
Happiness leads to smiling, and smiling leads to happiness. Happiness is your natural immunity, having a profound, positive effect on your health and well-being. If you are happy, smile. If you aren't happy, smile anyway. It will help you get there.
YOU MATTER
In these times of negative news, smiling seems to have gone to the wayside. The economy is failing, the environment is suffering, and all one needs to do is read or watch the news to find 10 other things to not smile about. But maybe there is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in all of this. Just maybe, if enough people decide to smile, there will be a shift in all of this on a level that we can't quite understand. And maybe Jack Lenore of Bend, Ore., has proved just that.
"I knew that my co-workers were going to look at me strange, but the fact that they would, in and of itself, is exactly why I knew I should do it," Jack said.
Feeling a need to "lift" the energy at his company, Jack organized a smile day at the office. For one day, all of the 150 workers were urged to smile at least 100 times.
"I figured that on an eight-hour workday, that was only around 12 smiles per hour - or one every five minutes," Jack said. "I felt it was realistic, and I was curious to see if it would truly make a difference."
So Jack sent out a company memo and designated Jan. 26 as "100 Smiles Day" at his office.
"I must admit, those first couple hours were hysterical. I think people felt kind of dorky. There were even a lot of laughs and funny faces being made. But, without a doubt, there was a buzz about the office, an interaction that wasn't there before," he said.
And then Jack noticed the buzz start to quiet as the day went along. As the daily workload increased and the stress levels began to rise, the smiles and laughter began to diminish.
"It was so interesting to see how the workday started to take over people's spirit. The fun and positive energy was getting sucked out of the building," he said. "So I sent out another company memo as a sort of pep talk. It worked like a charm and ended up being a great learning experience for everyone. We all got to experience the roller-coaster ride and realized how much more fun it was when people were smiling and laughing."
By the end of the day, many of the co-workers were not sure if they actually hit 100 smiles, but they all said that it was one of the most enjoyable days in the office. And since that day, Jack has noticed an increase in positive energy in the air.
"I really think it lifted the spirit of our company and it continues to this very day," he said. "I may do this once a month, just to keep it going. It's fun."
Jack, you have made us smile as well. You matter.
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© 2009, The Modesto Bee Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
