Catch A Smile!
Written by Kathryn Savage
You're sitting in a room where something very serious and important is going on – a graduation ceremony, an office meeting, a classroom, a group therapy session – and the person sitting next to you starts to giggle. It’s the uncontrollable kind. The under the breath gasping and twitching to keep it inside kind. Now you're cracking up. There is nothing funny going on, but you just can’t help it. You are laughing hysterically for no good reason and trying hard to control it.
Smiling it turns out, is just as contagious as laughter!
Research suggests when you see a smile you smile back. Making smiling a feel good and infectious way to cheer up a room.
It gets better than that - the act of smiling can improve you mood. How? Studies show that smiling releases endorphins that act as natural mood improvers.
Smiling improves your mood and makes you more relaxed. Try it. Sit back close you eyes and smile. I bet you didn’t notice that your shoulders relaxed and you breathed in deep and exhaled languidly. All that good stuff just by closing your eyes and smiling.
Since smiling has the natural ability to relax muscles, it also reduces stress on our bodies and may even boost our immune systems. Go ahead, force a grin. If you need some help smiling and laughing I suggest you visit this website on your lunchbreak: www.funnyordie.com for all sorts of video links to hilarious clips.
If that doesn't do it for you, try some laughing yoga (it's great exercise for the heart and mind):
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