If you want a quality, act as if you already have it.
This week I struggled to come up with a topic to write about, so I asked my husband for a suggestion.
Effortlessly, he came up with: Fake it till you make it.
A few years ago, a health care practitioner told me I was too smiley.
I was the caregiver for several family members who had experienced traumatic health challenges. It was a difficult time, yet, I smiled.
The health care practitioner said I was masking my emotions.
I told her: I am acting as if all is well. It was my job to reassure and provide hope - to be the change I wanted to see in others.
I pretended I had superpowers, oozing vitamin L for love and vitamin H for happiness. Somehow it helped.
Love heals all and happiness is contagious.
A smile improves outlook
It's hard not to feel happy when you make someone smile.
~ Roy T. Bennett
On May 11th, 2020, groundbreaking research was published in Experimental Psychology, confirming that the act of smiling - simply moving our facial muscles - can trick our mind into being more optimistic.
The study evaluated the impact of a fake smile (pen held between the teeth) on the perception of how one interprets the disposition of others.
Subjects who held the pen across the mouth were more likely to perceive facial expressions and body movements as happier than control subjects (those with no pen held between teeth).
Apparently, when we engage smile muscles, we see the world in a more positive light.
Facial expressions, and even body language, not only reflect how we feel but may alter our state of being.
Smiling is infectious
When our children were in elementary school, their kindergarten teacher taught them to recite the following poem.
Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin,
don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!
This poem resonated with us. It left a lasting impression.
It became my belief that if I smiled, no matter how I was feeling, I could still potentially brighten someone else's day, and thus my own.
My loved ones might say I tend to operate on a very narrow emotional bandwidth - no extremes either way. But, I am human. I am not happy all the time.
I recognize how important it is to express all feelings, good and bad, rather than bottle them up. Nevertheless, I am now more mindful of the impact my emotions have on others.
I see that I spiral downwards when I focus on injustice. I attract unfortunate events and relationship challenges that reflect my negative state.
Love, joy, gratitude and compassion are feelings that radiate at a higher frequency and uplift others, as demonstrated by the Maharishi Effect. I aspire to cultivate more uplifting energy.
Smile to flourish
With lockdowns lingering here in Ontario, never has there been a better time to fake it till we make it. Although mask-wearing interferes with our ability to display a smile, the simple act of smiling beneath our masks may help us see the world in a more positive light and react accordingly.
Sometimes acting as if all is well, makes it so. A genuine smile is a gift we give each other. It nourishes heart and soul so that we can flourish.
We are all intrinsically interconnected. The yogic greeting namasté means the divine light in me bows to the divine light in you. How better to share some light in a dark time than with a radiant smile?
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