Reminding yourself to smile often can not only make more friendships, but it can also make you feel better.<\/p>\n
And rather than wait for a reason to smile, just making the physical change of literally turning that frown upside down could impact emotions, according to experts.<\/p>\n
Positive feedback<\/p>\n
Research backs up the fact that smiling goes a long way.<\/p>\n
Some older research has focused on this “facial feedback hypothesis”, according to Stanford University\u00a0psychology professor Dr Jeanne Tsai,\u00a0who runs the university’s Culture and Emotion Lab.<\/p>\n
In one classic study in the late 1980s, researchers would have subjects put a pencil between their lips and adopt a smile or a frown while viewing a positive movie clip like a cartoon.<\/p>\n
Some subjects who smiled would feel the sensation of the smile more and be more amused.<\/p>\n
“When we’ve done that demonstration in classes, it works,” Prof Tsai said.<\/p>\n
“When you’re doing it in a room by yourself, you’re not doing it in a social interaction, maybe it’s making you remember, or it’s an effect of remembering some good thing that happened and that would put you in a better mood.”<\/p>\n
At the Orange County Academy of Sciences and Arts (OCASA) in Southern California,\u00a0United States,\u00a0the power of a smile is taken very seriously.<\/p>\n
An entire section on the charter school group’s website is dedicated to its philosophy that a smile can make a difference.<\/p>\n
“Smiling creates a supportive classroom culture that makes students relaxed, active and motivated,” according to the website.<\/p>\n
“It increases emotional well-being, lowers stress and gives students confidence.”<\/p>\n
How smiling can benefit health<\/p>\n
Clinical and forensic neuropsychologist\u00a0Dr Judy Ho, who also teaches at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, US, discusses smiling as a coping strategy with some patients suffering depression or anxiety.<\/p>\n
“I’m not suggesting that that’s the only way they can fix things,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s just like another thing that you can add to your toolbox.”<\/p>\n
Smiling can affect one’s level of cortisol, a hormone the body releases partly to help regulate stress and mood, according to Dr Ho.<\/p>\n
Smiling can also affect brain chemicals that are associated with positive feelings, including endorphins, dopamine and serotonin.<\/p>\n
“People who smile during stressful tasks generally demonstrated lower heart rates during recovery than those maintaining neutral expressions,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Smiling also reduced aspects of the body’s physiological stress response.”<\/p>\n
The hope is if you smile enough, you will start feeling it emotionally.<\/p>\n
“In some ways, it’s like a mediating effect,” she added.<\/p>\n
Value of a smile<\/p>\n
How smiling, and even the openness of a smile, are perceived are not universal.<\/p>\n
Prof Tsai has conducted research on how emotion in American culture puts value on trying to always feel positive and minimising negativity and sadness.<\/p>\n