A smile is nature’s best antidote for discouragement. It brings rest to the weary, sunshine to those who are sad, and hope to those who are hopeless and defeated.
A smile is so valuable that it can’t be bought, begged, borrowed, or taken away against your will. You have to be willing to give a smile away before it can do anyone else any good.
So if someone is too tired or grumpy to flash you a smile, let him have one of yours anyway. Nobody needs a smile as much as the person who has none to give.”
Several years ago I was in a San Diego restaurant with my mother. While I paid the check, we both noticed an elderly woman waiting to be seated. As we left the restaurant, Mom asked, "Did you notice that woman with the wonderful smile?" I most certainly did. Her smile lit up the room. It was a smile to die for_one that would certainly win instant friends. It was a smile that you don't often see in a stranger. And maybe Mom and I smiled back, I don't remember. Mom later commented, "I wish I'd told her what a terrific smile she had." But neither of us had. We'd both received a gift without saying thank-you.
Later, on my long drive home, I stopped at a fast-food restaurant for a quick bite. A 70ish woman waited by the condiment bar while her husband ordered. She glanced my way and smiled brightly. It was one of those smiles that broadcast, "I love life!"
I wasn't going to let THIS opportunity pass_I was going to say SOMETHING. As I approached this woman from 30 feet away, her smile melted into a rather startled look; as if asking, "Did I do something wrong?" I walked over to her and simply said, "You have a wonderful smile!" Wow, did her face light up! And she responded with an enthusiastic, "Thank You". My comment probably made her day, but it also made MY day. We truly exchanged gifts that afternoon.
SMILES: INSTANT FACELIFTS
Life's lessons have taught me this: a smile is the number one feature that makes people attractive. It's a welcome mat. It's what makes folks approachable. People with a great smiles radiate a warmth that draws others to them instantly.
Some people naturally have a great smile. Others_analytical types like me_must work at it. One way to tell if you're in my category is to recall picking up your developed photos. As you flipped through the pictures, you didn't like the way you looked in most of them. But then...you discovered that one great picture of yourself. In it, you look friendly_you're smiling broadly and your eyes twinkle. Now THAT picture looks like you!
SMILE AEROBICS FOR EMOTIONAL HEALTH
One way to become better at smiling is increasing your awareness. Take notice of those you find warm and inviting. Is it their smile? Make an effort to LOOK for great smiles. Notice the appeal of people who smile with their EYES, not just their mouth. The whole face gets involved. Consider these people your models. Study yourself in the mirror. How do you look in the rest room, when shopping, and while passing a reflective window? Do you look friendly? Approachable? Do you really LIKE the image you're projecting?
In fact, a mirror is ideal for your smile workout. Practice various smiles toward capturing that perfect look for the camera. Work on expressing your smile with your eyes. A tip: cut a paper rectangle that permits you to see only your eyes in the mirror. Practice smiling just with your eyes. Get used to the feel of your cheekbones as they lift to brighten your eyes. When you see how a great smile LOOKS, remember how it FEELS. When you can finally project your best smile, hold it. Turn away from the mirror. How does your face feel? What muscles are you using? Make an effort to develop muscle memory, so you can instantly recreate this smile at will.
A smile cost nothing, but gives much.
It enriches those who receive,
without making poorer those who give.
It takes but a moment,
but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
without making poorer those who give.
It takes but a moment,
but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.
None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is so poor but that he can be made rich by it.
A smile creates happiness in the home,
fosters good will in business,
and is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary,
cheer to the discouraged,
sunshine to the sad,
and is nature's best antidote for trouble.
fosters good will in business,
and is the countersign of friendship.
It brings rest to the weary,
cheer to the discouraged,
sunshine to the sad,
and is nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen,
for it is something that is of no value to anyone
until it is given away.
for it is something that is of no value to anyone
until it is given away.
Some people are too tired to give you a smile.
Give them one of yours,
as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.
It costs nothing, but creates much good. It enriches those who receive it without impoverishing those who give it away. It happens in a flash but the memory of it can last forever. No one is so rich that he can get along without it. No one is too poor to feel rich when receiving it. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen for it is something of no earthly good to anybody until it is given away willingly.
It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it, and none so poor but are richer for its benefits. It creates happiness in the home, fosters good will in a business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and Nature's best antidote for trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody till it is given away. And if in the last-minute rush of the business-day, some of our colleagues should be too tired to give a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours? For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give!
“Imagine you need a new car. What factors influence your choice? You might intend to base your decision on purely practical matters such as running costs and reliability, however new research shows that social factors, such as the salesperson’s behaviour, play a bigger role than you think.”
“If the salesperson gives you a genuine smile of pleasure, you will have a positive experience and be likely to buy a nicer car or more add-ons than you originally intended. Indeed, genuine smiles appear to act as a form of social currency, a valuable reward that people will pay to receive,” she explains.
The researchers examined people’s responses to two types of smiles: genuine and polite. The feature that distinguishes these smiles is the presence of “laugh lines”, the tiny wrinkles that appear at the corners of the eyes during genuine but not polite smiles. The authors designed an experiment in which students played a game against computerized ‘opponents’ with either higher or lower chances of winning money and who smiled either genuinely or politely. In the later stages of the ‘game’, the researchers measured people’s preferences by asking them to choose their opponents. The results allowed the researchers to determine how valuable participants found each type of smile.
“This is a small amount, but imagine that you exchange 10 to 20 of these smiles in a short interaction. That value would add up quickly and influence your social judgment. So, the new car might seem a better bargain if a genuinely smiling salesperson sells it to you,” suggests Dr Erin Heerey, the study’s co-author.
According to Shore, this research has implications for how people make a range of important social decisions.
“Genuine smiles might help people see eye-to-eye during interactions. People who often make genuine smiles may have an easier time convincing others to adopt their goals. Because positive interactions help people build relationships, smiles might cement the social ties we share with our friends and colleagues.”
Their research has been published in the journal Emotion.
i would like to add, as a man who smiles genuinely, easily, and often, that there exists a tipping point. Employed as a breakfast waiter these past 7 years, for six months i've been performing an experiment based on past observations. On days I'm too tired to be my regular, chipper, top'o'tha'morning to ya kinda guy, i always seem to make amazing tips. I believed they liked me hung-over, but even hung-over, i flash my smile regularly, just not constantly.
so since xmas i'v regularly concentrated on holding in my natural sunshine, hiding it behind a dour, utterly relaxed face, and only letting it out in smiles after the food's on the table, followd by my regular "Take Care! Have a Nice Day!"
if laugh lines are worth 0.33cents, then my ears moving back a fraction of an inch in my happiest smile is worth 5 bux: the proof's in the pudding...but too much is suspect, even if it's genuine.
You can't put a price on a smile, so goes the popular saying. But a team of British academics claim to have done just that. After developing computer software to test people's responses when someone's face cracks into a smile, researchers at Bangor University have calculated the economic value of a grin. Sadly, their findings suggest that flashing gleaming gnashers isn't going to make you a millionaire: each smile is, they report, worth precisely one third of a penny.
With three smiles earning just a penny, not even the Cheshire cat would be able to give up his day job, but, according to the academics, working out the value of a grin could have a significant impact on our human interactions. Danielle Shore, who led the research with her colleague at Bangor's school of psychology, Erin Heerey, says smiles act as a form of "social currency – a valuable reward that people will pay to receive". She says her research suggests they have the power to do anything from luring shoppers to spending more than they intended to creating lucrative working relationships.
But just before you start flashing fake smiles at everyone in a get-rich-quick kind of way, take pause. Shore found that positive responses to smiles only worked when they were genuine. Her research involved recruiting students to play a game against computerised opponents. The computer avatars either smiled genuinely – defined as having the presence of "laugh lines", tiny wrinkles in the corners of the eyes – or politely. Through playing the game, participants learned to associate a probability of winning money with each of the computer figures, with some programmed to have a better chance of winning than others. The avatars indicated participants' wins by displaying either genuine or polite smiles. Later in the game, participants were asked to choose which opponents they wanted to play on each round.
"We were able to determine the value of a smile based on their choices," Shore explains. "The really surprising finding was that participants preferred genuinely smiling opponents to politely smiling ones, even when the politely smiling ones offered them a greater chance of winning. We expected our participants – all university students, whom you might expect to be highly motivated to earn money – to prefer genuinely smiling opponents only when the odds of winning were equal. The fact that they chose opponents who were less likely to pay out was a big surprise."
