This thought-provoking quote is from my friend and pastor Will. I agree with the idea that what we do can affect how we feel, and I offer that we can “do” our way into happy, or at least into a little happier. (That said, please know that I am not minimizing more severe depression that is beyond “doing” a few things differently, and that most likely needs, or at the least benefits from, pharmaceuticals and psychotherapy.)
Here's a couple of suggestions, based on some fascinating research, for using your body (namely your facial muscles) to move you toward happy.
1) Put a smile on your face by hanging out with upbeat friends, and increase your happy.
Research from Harvard and the University of California-San Diego found that every happy person in your social circle increases your spirits by an average of 9%.
James Fowler, a University of California-San Diego (UCSD) political scientist, co-authored a 2008 study with Harvard University medical sociologist Nicholas Christakis. Quoting from a UCSD website:
"Christakis and Fowler used data from the Framingham Heart Study to recreate a social network of 4,739 people whose happiness was measured from 1983 to 2003. To assess the participants’ emotional wellbeing, they relied on answers to four items from the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale: “I felt hopeful about the future”; “I was happy”; “I enjoyed life”; and “I felt that I was just as good as other people.”
The research shows that happiness loves company. Happy people tend to cluster together, and, on the surface, people with more social contacts seem generally happier. Fowler and Christakis observe, however, that what matters there is not just the total number of connections but the number of happy ones.
On average, every happy friend increases your own chance of being happy by 9 percent. Each unhappy friend decreases it by 7 percent.
Happiness, the researchers found, spreads in a social network up to three degrees of separation: You are 15 percent more likely to be happy if directly connected to a happy person; 10 percent if it’s the friend of a friend who is happy; and 6 percent if it’s the friend of a friend of a friend.
Unhappiness also spreads, but not nearly as much.
“The effects we observe may not seem like much at first,” said Fowler, “but consider that $5,000 extra dollars, in 1984, was associated with just a 2 percent increase in happiness and you see that the power of other people is incredible."
2) Put a smile on your face by simply moving your smile muscles, and find the world a more pleasant place.
Research shows that when people mimicked facial expressions associated with happiness (a smile!) they felt happier. In an original 1988 study, and then again in a 2002 redesigned study, Robert Soussignan asked participants to hold a pencil with their teeth, which activates the zygomatic major muscle that we use when we smile; or to hold the pencil in their lips, which does not activate the smiling muscles. Those who were “smiling” (holding pencil with teeth) rated cartoons funnier than those who held the pencils with their lips.
Now let’s put those first two suggestions together, and we have --
3) Put a smile on your face by mimicking another’s smile, and make the world a better place.
A fun article relays the following study results:
Research conducted in Sweden exposed participants to images of faces while they monitored their facial muscles through electromyographs (EMGs). When exposed to happy faces, participants moved their zygomatic major muscle (used in smiling); when
exposed to sad faces, participants moved their corrugator supercilii muscle (used in frowning). Participants did this even when the stimuli were hidden and rapidly presented. Participants were usually unaware that they even moved their muscles. Drs. Ursula Hess and Slyvie Blairy conducted a study where participants viewed video clips of a person expressing anger, sadness, disgust and happiness. Results showed that participants consistently mimicked each of those expressions. These studies support that when you smile at someone, their muscles maneuver into a smile as well.
I think we all realize that we almost always do
smile when another is smiling. I know I readily smile when I see my grandbaby Noah smile (yep, this is another shameless excuse to share a picture or two of my adorable grandchild). Smiles of little ones may be among the sweetest, but all grins are good.
May your days be full of grins and all kinds of well and good.
"Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product." -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and author (1884-1962)
A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. -Proverbs 17:22 (Amplified Bible)
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