The Contagious smile: How smiling is good for our well-being

By Sandeep Kulshrestha

In our life experiences, we see different types of people. There are some who perpetually frown and rarely smile, while some laugh their heart out irrespective of their external environment and of course there are many who maintain a smile on their face, creating a joyful ambiance around them. Does anyone like frowning people in any case? I hope not

The good news is that people who smile can relate to people better, are usually successful at work and they can surely influence the others in making them smile as well. A study at Penn State University supports this hypothesis. According to the study, people who smile are likable as well as competent in whatever they do. In a research conducted at Uppsala University in Sweden, it was deduced that one cannot really frown when someone is smiling. We usually say that smile is contagious as a metaphor or as an appreciation for someone we like but the research studies mentioned in this article clearly proves that smile is surely contagious

In the book Secrets of Your cells, written by biochemist Sondra Barrett, it is mentioned that smiling can also save our lives. According to Sondra, smiling a lot can reduce the stress levels and eventually leading to coping up with serious illnesses in much more better ways and the body’s biochemistry, especially of the cells becomes more flexible in channelizing the healing process.

For our emotional well-being, it is hence imperative that we smile more and more. In many cases, tools like Mindfulness also helps in making us calmer, eventually leading us to smile more naturally, while accepting the present moment with gratitude and happiness.