A Smile and a Hello

by Judy

Earlier this week I was rushing through the grocery store after work, trying to get a few last minute things for my dinner preparation.  I was in a hurry and I was tired, but as I put my items on the checkout counter I smiled and said hello to the cashier.  She gave me a huge smile back and proceeded to ring up my items.  As we bagged my groceries together and chatted, she told me that I was the only friendly customer she had had so far, an hour into her shift. 

As I walked to my car I felt sad, and I found myself start to tear up a bit as I got into my car.  It was such an easy thing to do to make that cashier's day just a little bit brighter - a smile and a hello.  I started thinking - panicking really...  I consider myself to be a friendly person, and I always try to be polite.  But I wondered - how many times have I been in my "own little world" thinking about the next thing on my to-do list, or where I needed to be next?  How many times had I unintentionally left a person feeling like this cashier had felt before I arrived?

 I thought, just like the 'just say no' campaigns, we need a 'just say hello' campaign.  Surprisingly, I found online, that Oprah has exactly that!  She has a just say hello campaign!  You can check it out here and participate if you'd like. I also found this article written by a college professor about this topic, and love that his college has a 'Say Hello' campaign in "an effort at campus self improvement."

It's such a simple, but effective way to not only connect with everyone we come in contact with each day, but a powerful way to make those people feel good!

I am certain that all of you try your best to be friendly and kind, but maybe there are times that you are rushing, or worried, or 'in your own little world' like I am sometimes.  I hope that today you will be sure to greet friends, and strangers alike, with a smile and a hello, and make someone's day just a little bit brighter. 

Smile

by Carol A.

Are you aware that when we ask people to smile for the camera we are actually creating joy?

In the 1800's Charles Darwin proposed the Facial Feedback Response Theory - that happiness does not make us smile, as much as smiling makes us happy. He maintained that even mimicking a smile actually makes you feel better. Recent research has proven him correct - smiling actually stimulates the brain's reward mechanism!

One study from the 1950s, evaluated the smiles in high school yearbook photos and found that the biggest smiles were the best predictors,over a 30 year period, of well-being and success. A similar study around the same time used baseball cards to predict longevity. The players who were not smiling lived an average of 72.9 years, small smilers lived 75 years, and those who were beaming lived 79.9 years. 

Here's how it plays out. There are two muscle sets involved in smiling. The zygomaticus major moves the corners of your mouth. That's the easy one. Whether you are using your social skills or your emotional ones, you can make those corners rise. But the secret to a genuine smile lies in your obicularis occule muscle group - you guessed it - your eye sockets. Those beautiful "crows feet" really do reflect your joy.

But there's more to it than that. MRI's demonstrate that a cooler brain produces the hormones that create good emotions while a warmer brain creates negative emotions. The hypothalamus regulates our emotions, but it also happens to control our body temperature. (Think about that - shivers can result from being freezing or from fear; sweating can come from excitement but also from anxiety.) Our carotid artery travels through the cavernous sinus, which also happens to contain the facial veins. When you smile, the facial muscles contract, constricting the facial veins. The reduced blood flow is cooler, which in turn cools the brain on arrival. A smile reduces blood pressure, generates the release of endorphins and the reduction of stress hormones. A smile produces the same brain activity as :

       a good night's sleep

       2600 chocolate bars

       $25,000.00 in cash

And science also shows that it is hard to frown when looking at a smile. Involuntarily, we judge the genuineness of a person's smile by reflecting it. When subjects were asked to judge people's smiles while clamping down on a pencil (to prevent the facial muscles from imitating the smile) the accuracy of the judgement deteriorated measurably and significantly. Yet when we are not biting on pencils, smiling really is contagious. Smiling begets smiling - a symbiotic relationship that generates warmth and good feelings in each of us. In addition, you are perceived differently when you smile. People see you as more reliable, attractive, relaxed and sincere.

           More than 1/3 of us smile 20 times a day

           14% of us smile 5 times a day

           Babies smile in the womb

           Children smile on average 400 times a day

Here are some smiles for you to peruse while you listen to this!

In this holiday season and always 

spread the joy with your beautiful smile!

(Our Monthly Focus for December is "Joy."  Please give us the chance to reflect your favorite smiles by posting them on our Flickr, Facebook, Instagram and Focus on Phoneography sites)

(*This post blatantly borrows from the following sources:

Ron Gutman on NPR radio Hour's TED Talk; Leo Widrich - "Buffer," a business blog; Daniel Goleman - Science section New York Times 7/18/89; Ron Riggio + Sarah Stevenson, Psychology Today 6/25/12; Journal Neuropsychologia; Huffington post 8/1/12)