Everyone smiles. From industrialized nations to remote tribes,
studies have shown that smiling is universal. Even more stunning is
that people from all over the world smile the same way. Even blind
children begin to smile without seeing others smile. It’s ingrained in
the very code that makes us human.
Although smiling comes in many forms, most are actually fake. In
fact, there is only one smile that is genuine.
When the corners of the
mouth go up, the eyes narrow slightly creating crow’s feet, and the
upper half of the cheeks rise, you are experiencing the Duchenne Smile,
named by Paul Ekman, an emeritus professor of psychology at the
University of California at San Francisco after Guillaume-Benjamin
Duchenne, the French physiologist who first studied the muscle that
surrounds the eye in 1862.
The Duchenne smile is the one true smile that is a direct result of
feeling happy. But, how do we FEEL happy? When we receive or give a
gift, or see our children smile and laugh, physiological changes take
place. Our hearts beat faster and the flow of blood increases. Skin
temperature rises, which makes the skin slightly damper and our fingers
tremble. The experience of a compliment or gift is a trigger. The
trigger sets off changes in the body, which signal the brain to feel
happy.
Although this may sound odd at first, try forcing yourself to feeling
happy when your muscles are tense, your face is frowned and your brow
furrowed. The involuntary emotions cause our body reaction to signal
our brain, which means that happiness arises as much from our body as it
does from our thoughts.
The emotions associated with feeling happy are involuntarily
controlled by our automatic nervous system. This is why we cannot
simply decide to be happy by influencing involuntary body function. It
is impossible for us to command our blood to flow faster. We do,
however, have the ability to bypass the automatic nervous system. We
have the ability to smile, even without a trigger.
Ekman’s work corroborated that if feelings can come from the body,
then happiness can come from a genuine Duchenne smile. Ekman trained
his subjects to control the movement of the muscles that surround the
eye to achieve the Duchenne smile. The result was a signal of happiness
without a trigger sent to the brain thereby proving that happiness
doesn’t flow in just one direction, and smiling alone can make us happy.
I suggest that we take the work of Ekman to the next level. If the
bodily movement of smiling can make our brains experience feelings of
happiness, then why not use the smile as a trigger for others. What you
put out into the world comes back to you. The next time you are
introduced to someone, just give your first name and watch what
happens. More likely than not, they will return the introduction with
their first name. Offer your first and last name, and you will receive
the same. Try it with a smile. I’m sure you will find a smile in
return. This effect can influence your happiness and the feelings of
everyone you come into contact with throughout your day. By smiling
more and passing it along, you truly put the Duchenne smile effect into
action.
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