Happiness leads to smiling, and smiling leads to happiness. Happiness is your natural immunity, having a profound, positive effect on your health and well-being. If you are happy, smile. If you aren't happy, smile anyway. It will help you get there.

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TAKE ACTION TODAY

  1. Smile at EVERYONE you see today.
  2. Keep track of how many times you smile and laugh today.
  3. If you are having trouble smiling, here are a few suggestions to help:
    • Make faces at yourself in the mirror.
    • Shake your body like it's laughing from inside.
    • Jump on the bed.
    • Hug someone you love.
    • Visit a pet store.
  4. At the end of your day of smiling, notice how you feel and whether people acted differently around you.

FACTS

  • A smile is a universal expression of happiness and recognized as such by all cultures.
  • A smiling person is judged to be more pleasant, attractive, sincere, sociable, and competent. Smiling is contagious.
  • Happy people generally don't get sick as often as people who are unhappy.
  • Smiling or even seeing somebody smile releases endorphins that work in the brain to give an overall feeling of well-being.
  • People are born with the ability to smile. Even babies born blind smile.
  • Adults laugh approximately 15 times per day, while children laugh about 400 times a day.
  • It takes only 17 muscles to smile, compared to 43 muscles to frown.
  • Women smile more than men.

More Ways to Make Your Mondays Matter
Create, support and appreciate art
Party with a purpose
What matters to you?

Excerpted from: Every Monday Matters: 52 Ways to Make a Difference by Matthew Emerzian and Kelly Bozza. Copyright © 2008 Every Monday Matters LLC. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published 11/22/2009

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