Smile!

August 29th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Keep on smilin’, ‘cause when you’re smilin’, baby
The whole world smiles with you.

So sang Frank Sinatra in the 1950s. In fact, Kate Perry devoted a whole album to the topic: Smile (released this month), with an eponymous song that goes:

I’m so thankful,
‘Cause I finally, ‘cause I finally
Smile (Oh)!
I’m so grateful,
‘Cause I finally, ‘cause I finally
Smile (Oh, oh)!

Is this all just smoke and mirrors with positive thinking and self-hypnosis, or is there something to this theory of smiling—that it picks you up, changes your outlook, and makes you feel better?

Apparently, there is, and it does. Or so declared psychologists recently in “Your Face and Moves Seem Happier When I Smile: Facial Action Influences the Perception of Emotional Faces and Biological Motion Stimuli” in Experimental Psychology.

Facial muscular activity alters the recognition of not only facial expressions but also bodily expressions.”

I.e., the act of smiling can trick your mind into being positive about others’ facial expressions and postures, altogether generating more positive emotions in the smiler.

What was interesting was that these researchers performed their experiments not by having participants smile, but by inducing an artificial smiling-like expression by holding a pen between their teeth, forcing facial muscles to replicate the movement of a real smile!

Lead author, University of South Australia’s Dr. Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos:

When your muscles say you’re happy, you’re more likely to see the world around you in a positive way.”

It seems that forcing that artificial smile (pen-in-teeth), the emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, is stimulated, causing it to release neurotransmitters that propagate an emotionally positive state.

Marmolejo-Ramos says there is a strong link between action and perception:

In a nutshell, perceptual and motor systems are intertwined when we emotionally process stimuli. For mental health, this has interesting implications. If we can trick the brain into perceiving stimuli as “happy,” then we can potentially use this mechanism to help boost mental health. A “fake it ‘til you make it” approach could have more credit than we expect.”

But you really want to be happy?

Happy is the one who has not walked by the counsel of the wicked,
Or in the path of sinners stood, nor in the seat of scoffers sat!
Instead, in the law of the LORD is his delight,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He has become like a tree transplanted by canals of water,
Which its fruit—it yields in its season, and its foliage—it does not wither;
And in all he does, he succeeds. …
For Yahweh knows the path of the righteous,
But the path of the wicked perishes.
Psalm 1:1–6

Happy are all who take refuge in Him!
Psalm 2:12

Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!
Happy is the one to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity.
Psalm 32:1–2

Happy is the one who has made the LORD his trust.
Psalm 40:4

Happy is the one who considers the helpless;
The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble.
Psalm 41:1

Happy is the one whose strength is in You
O LORD of hosts, H Happy is the one who trusts in You!
Psalm 84:5, 12

Happy are the ones who keep justice,
Who practice righteousness at all times!
Psalm 106:3

Happy is the one who fears the LORD,
Who greatly delights in His commandments.
Psalm 112:1

Happy is everyone who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.
Psalm 128:1

Happy, indeed!

SOURCES:
University of South Australia; Experimental Psychology