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Did you know that there’s more to your smile than just showing others that you’re feeling happy? As well as having an impact on those around you, smiling also contains other hidden benefits that most people don’t even realise exist.
We’ve collected together five of the most incredible things your smile can do for you, to help you understand just how essential it is to have a smile you want to share with everyone you meet.
- Smiling makes you feel happy (even if you’re not)
It’s probably no surprise that your smile and your mind are connected. Your brain processes your emotions, and when you’re happy it sends a message to your mouth to form a smile. But what you might not know is that it actually works the other way too.
Consciously making your mouth form a smile transmits signals to your brain that you’re feeling happy. Your brain then does things that usually happen when you feel happy, such as telling your body to release endorphins. These are “feel-good” chemicals produces in your nervous system that gives you a positive rush of energy.
The effect of a smile producing endorphins has been studied and observed since the 1980s. So even if you’re not feeling naturally happy, get yourself to smile and that could put you in a better mood.
- Smiling is contagious
Think of the last time you saw someone who had just received some good news. It’s very likely that, when you saw them smiling, the corners of your own mouth went up too without you even realising and before you knew why they were happy. It’s a subconscious reaction that most people will automatically show.
If you smile, other people who see you doing it are far more likely to mirror your positive behaviour by smiling too. And as we already know, smiling will make them feel good even if they weren’t especially happy to start with. If you smile, you’re therefore more likely to make others around you happy.
So, even if you’re not a Leicester City fan, it seems that it really is true that “when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you”!
- Smiling relieves stress
Just as consciously smiling can make you feel happy, it can also counteract the negative feelings associated with being stressed or anxious. Along with the release of endorphins, your brain will send out signals to slow your breathing and reduce your heart rate, two processes which speed up when you feel stress. By slowing these down, your body will become more relaxed.
Not only does this have the immediate impact of making you feel less anxious, there are also long term health benefits. Feeling less stressed helps to reduce your blood pressure, improve your digestion and better regulate your blood sugar levels.
- Smiling makes you more appealing to others
Whether you’re attending an interview for your dream job, or planning to ask someone out on a date, smiling will be to your benefit. Whether as a prospective employee or a significant other, a smile makes you appear more attractive to other people.
Studies have shown that, when given a selection of photographs featuring both smiling faces and those with a neutral expression, participants were naturally drawn a lot more to the smiles. They also reported that these faces seemed more stable, confident, conscientious and likeable.
- Smiling regularly leads to laughter
The benefits of laughing have been revealed in recent studies, revealing it to be more than just an expression of happiness and amusem*nt. Laughing burns calories and gives your abdominal muscles a mini-workout. There is also evidence to suggest that laughter can help you to sleep better, lower your stress levels, reduce your blood sugar and improve blood flow around your body. And have you ever laughed without smiling first? Almost certainly not.
These are just five of the many benefits of smiling. However, in order to unlock the hidden potential of your smile, it’s important to have teeth you want to show off to others. Without a smile you love, you will naturally smile less, meaning you won’t be able to unleash the many benefits your smile can potentially give you. Orthodontic treatment could be the answer to you releasing the full power of your smile, which in turn could literally help to transform your life.
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