How does smiling effect your mood?

[Rarelle]

Have you ever gritted your teeth and smiled
for all your worth because you felt you must,
only to realize afterward that the pure act
of putting dimples in your cheeks transformed
you into a giddy and reckless mood?

Today should have been a miserable repeat of
weeks of frustating work, but I decided to
smile simply because I couldn't take feeling
miserable anymore. Instead of the rerun,I left
work whistling and there was talk about why.
LOL.

Sometimes the hardest part about being happy is
deciding you refuse to be anything less.
How contagious is your smile? =D

[da5zeay]

I've discovered this to be true as well....the act of smiling tends to
put me in a better mood. And it IS contagious, if it's a genuine smile,
backed by a genuine mood. I don't think a fake smile would be quite as
effective at being a contagion, but still doesn't hurt.

[Think_n_See]

Cool question, Rarelle.
I love it that there is research on physiology and emtions. That just
putting a body into certain positions can result in certain emotions or
certain physiological changes. The below references have research that
shows this!

Prof. Levenson, Psychology of Berkley says that making a physical
change ABSOLUTELY produces an emotional response:
"We have caused people to have emotions in the laboratory in a number
of different ways. One of the most unusual tests we have used is one
where we have people move facial muscles. We don't tell them that we
are trying to get them to have emotions, but we say things like
"wrinkle your nose," "stick your tongue forward so it is just slightly
outside of your mouth." When a person does these things, we look at
what happens physiologically inside her/his body and then we ask "do
you feel anything?" When you ask younger people this question, about
60-70% will say they feel some emotion when they move their facial
muscles in these emotion-like ways. That is the most controversial way
that we have produced emotion in my laboratory."
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~aging/Levenson.html

"Most controversial in our study of emotion-specific physiological
activity was our discovery (Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983)
thatvoluntarily making one of the universal facial expressions can
generate the physiology and someof the subjective experience of
emotion."
www.paulekman.com/pdfs/ facial_expression_and_emotion.pdf

Some thoughts by Sharon Promislow:
"A sample experiment (referred to in "The Brain Pack" by Ron Van der
Meer and Al Dudink), shows that subjects rate cartoons as "funnier"
when they are forced to smile by holding a pen between their teeth. Why
does this happen? Current research suggests that memory doesn't only
live in the brain: it lives in every cell of the body."
http://www.enhancedlearning.com/articles.htm

"Physician and author Christiane Northrup explains that when you hold
feelings of thankfulness for at least 15 to 20 seconds, beneficial
physiological changes take place in your body. Levels of the stress
hormones cortisol and norepinephrine decrease, producing an array of
beneficial metabolic changes. Coronary arteries relax, thus increasing
the blood supply to your heart. And your breathing becomes deeper,
raising the oxygen level in your tissues."
www.ca.uky.edu/fcs/possibilities/Final_Publications/
No10--Gifts_of_Gratitude_and_Blessing--DM.pdf

I've heard that tai-chi is for this - the outward motions stablize,
balance, and make calm your inner emotions.

[smilingbear]

What a terrific thread. Thank you!