Vitamin S1 – Smiling

On my most recent flight, I had the experience of sitting next to a 26 year old hedge fund manager, who was an atypical business man to say the least. We touched on many topics, one of which was the notion of vibrational energy and how our positivity can impact those around us. He shared with me that he likes to smile, particularly at people because they are most likely to respond in a similar fashion. He reminded me that we have mirror neurons in our brain that respond to our environment – so if you smile, others around you might just imitate. This is his way of spreading positivity in the world. Quite insightful I thought.

Smiling releases endorphins and serotonin in your brain. These chemicals make us feel good. They also can help lower our blood pressure, and relieve stress. Therefore smiling is like a natural drug. Smiling uses over 50 muscles in your face, which can reduce sagginess in your skin. A study done by Orbit Complete, showed that over 2/3 of the time people found smiling people without make-up more attractive than people who weren’t smiling with make-up. How about that for a beauty tip?

Practice: Try putting an ultra subtle, barely noticeable smile on your face for 1 day. When you’re driving, reading, watching TV, sending an email, having a conversation with someone or whenever you think of it, bust a soft smile.