Episode #14. Wonder of the SMILE: Creating Daily Happiness is Fun
Updated: Mar 8, 2020
In this week’s video, we are excited to share with you an effective way to create happiness, even when you are feeling down. Click the VIDEO below & WATCH this week's inspiring video episode.
Ever wonder how you could tell your brain to stop feeling depressed, and just get happy? A SMILE can be your go-to tool in your "Happiness Toolkit". Why is smiling an effective way to start feeling happier? There is helpful science & inspiring ideas about why SMILING empowers us to create our own happiness.
Our bodies are constantly sending signals to our brains. These signals are presented to the brain in chemical & electrical signals. These unconscious signals are translated in the brain into conscious emotions, desires, feelings, and moods. The way we express and move our bodies directly affects our feelings & moods.
When you are really happy, you usually smile, right? Our brains have decided that when we smile, the corresponding emotion to feel is happiness. Our body sends messages to our brains, and our brains then create our emotional state of being and moods. Our body’s movements have associated emotions that correspond with those movements.
Our movements have corresponding emotions.
We all have certain physical movements that trigger our brains to feel greater happiness. It may be skipping, dancing, swinging your arms about or taking a few deep breaths.
Now of course, just because you smile, does not mean now everything is going to feel fine and you are going to be happier. We can all make our mouths smile, and still feel completely miserable. In order to have a smile inspire happiness, it has to be a real sincere smile.
While you can start to feel happier by at first starting to force a smile, the key is in what you do next... What we do with the rest of our face, the rest of body, and with our mind… will determine the overall effectiveness of the smile.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
How to create a really WONDERfilled smile...
~ Lift the corners of your mouth up and show some teeth.
~ Lift the cheeks.
~ Think about smiling with your eyes.
~ Focus on a couple big breaths in and out.
~ Let the shoulders fall away from your ears.
~ Lift your heart.
You have now moved your body into positions that trigger your brain to feel happiness.
** To help the process even more, think about things, places, people, or situations that bring a smile to your face. By thinking about things that bring you a feeling of joy, you enhance your ability to create a real smile and experience the corresponding benefit of happiness.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So next time you feel down, focus on you body and notice your posture and possible muscle tension. Begin to release tension in your body and let your whole face begin to smile. Think about something that makes you feel really happy, or a place that you love so much that it always makes you feel happy when you think about it… or think about your favorite food and why it’s your favorite food. As you think about these things that make you feel appreciation, joy, and wonder, you are telling your brain that it can let your conscious mood be happier.
Reaching for things to appreciate and feeling gratitude while letting the whole body begin to influence your mood will increase & empower your ability to create happiness. Isn't that what we all want? We all want to be happier. Smiling is a wonderful tool for stress relief, improved mood, positive thinking, problem solving, younger appearance, and inspired creativity.
Of course, it is easy to smile or laugh when you feel really happy. What if, when we are feeling down, sad, depressed, or negative, we realize that we do have a self-empowered way to help ourselves feel happier….by smiling!
If our wish is to cultivate our abilities to enhance and create daily happiness, then realizing and opening our minds to the gift of smiling is very empowering. Our human ability to smile is an incredible wonder. As we open our minds and hearts to noticing and appreciating the things that bring joy into our lives, we are realizing that a smile or the action of smiling is an incredible natural wonderment.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
** We really enjoy learning about the science of creating happiness and we know that you are also, if you are reading this Blog post. You may be interested in watching this fascinating & insightful TED Talk by Dr. Tal Shafir. We found this to be a wonderfully simple, yet thorough, explanation of how our bodies send signals to our brains that result in corresponding emotions. Enjoy checking it out.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
May this video inspire you to seek the joy & wonder that is the essence of who you are… Share & interact with us in the COMMENT section below…
(here on our website, or on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Patreon)
~ What is your favorite thing about the act of smiling?
~ Have you ever made yourself start smiling, so you could begin feeling happier?
~ Have you ever had your day uplifted, even if by just a bit, when someone smiled at you?
~ Do you love sharing smiles with others when you go out in the world?
We are building a FINDING JOY ONLINE COMMUNITY and we look forward to sharing our joys and wonders with each other. Together, we can inspire & uplift each other through sharing gratitude, joy, inspiration, and wonder with each other.
Episode Credits:
All video & photos were filmed by the two of us in this film episode, with the exception of the following images licensed through Unsplash;
~ “Woman Sitting on Stairs” Brooke Cagle, “Two Men Laughing” Nathan Anderson, “Woman Wearing Knit” Paulette Wooten, “Man Wearing Black & White” Aatik Tasneem, “Man Wearing Red” Bruce Mars, “Man w/Grinder” David Siglin & “Smiling Woman” Ivana Cajina. “People Eating Together" by Fauxel licensed thru Pexels.
The WONDERful music that goes into underscoring our videos is all licensed through Artlist. Musical Artists heard in THIS Episode:
~ Assaf Ayalon, Hanjo Gabler, Katrina Stone, LMOP, Kevin Graham, Midtro, Rex Banner & Marc Robillard
Join the Sea Tree “Wonderist” Family & HELP SUPPORT the creation & sharing of these INSPIRING weekly videos.
Become a Sea Tree Wonder member through Patreon, and receive behind the scenes access, physical & digital gifts, and doses of regular inspiration. Can you make a monthly monetary pledge? Together, we are happier!
We have 4 different monthly pledge giving amounts.
LEARN MORE and visit Sea Tree Wonder on Patreon.
COMMENT & INTERACT: Your likes, comments, shares & subscribing to the channel REALLY HELP the videos get shown to more people. More people discovering and sharing joy, gratitude, and wonder with each other, the HAPPIER the world we can all help create!
If you LIKE our videos, help us out on YouTube by giving our videos…
~ A “thumbs up”.
~ Comment & interact with us in the comment section
~ SUBSCRIBE to Sea Tree Wonder’s YouTube Channel
~ SHARE video with your family & friends.
THANK YOU again for your APPRECIATION & support
of the Sea Tree Wonder journey!
We invite you to connect, follow and share the Sea Tree Wonder journey online with your friends & family! We’re creating many fun & interactive posts throughout each week.
Cheers to feeling happier by simply smiling...
Your friends,
Wendy (Sequoia Win’Ni) & Megan
and "Wonder DOGS" Uluru & Konane
P.S. You can sign up (below) for our email newsletter to join in on the Wonder Journey. We’ll send you smiles, hugs, wonderments, encouragement and inspiration to your inbox each time we have a new weekly video episode to share.