make the world a better place

Smiling is an interesting facial expression. I don't know how many different kinds of smiles there are, but I think they are as numerous as there are types of people. Showing lots of teeth, closed mouth, pursed lips, the Grinch smile...you get my drift. I really like the show Lie to Me. If you haven't watched it - please do. It gets my stamp of approval and not that I'm on the top of the television critics heap, but its not only entertaining, but you can learn something too! (And not the fact that I should be paranoid at all times because there are multiple rapists or something on the street - i.e. C.S.I. or Law & Order.) Me, being a former psychology major I suppose, am inherently interested in human behavior. What makes people tick? Why do they act the way they do?

Smiling is something that I'm trying to be better at. Growing up, my parents would have probably described me as a "storm cloud." I'd walk down the stairs with a frown and a bad attitude. I guess being 12 years old had something to do with that, but nevertheless - after some guided parenting, I realized that I needed to smile more. No one (and I mean, no one) likes a storm cloud.

The facial feedback hypothesis states that our facial expressions can actually change our mood/emotional experience. Isn't that cool? Try it sometime. If you're ever feeling down, just smile. You'll actually find yourself smiling for real and maybe even laughing (partially out of the fact that you're smiling to yourself, but also because it makes you feel...well, better somehow.)