Smile and Pass It On

Recently I was at the Minute Clinic at CVS with my daughter, who was miserably sick with a high fever. We were in and out quickly with a diagnosis of strep throat. We went next door to grab her prescription. If you’ve ever had a sick child (ha!) you know how I was feeling at this point. She’d been feeling worse and worse as the day went on. I had to cancel a workshop for that night, I hadn’t showered all day, the house was a mess, and I hadn’t finished my work. As we stood in line, my daughter was crying because she felt so awful.

The woman in front of us was oblivious to all of this, and was going for the record for “longest CVS pharmacy check out” and “most questions asked to the pharmacist” and I was about to lose my freaking mind. I looked up at the Pharmacy Tech who was working on filling prescriptions and she gave me a big, genuine smile. I could not help but smile back at her, no matter how miserable I was. She then said to the woman in front of me “there’s a sick child behind you, do you mind if I really quickly check them out?” She didn't mind a bit, she said, and we were out of there in no time.

That Pharmacy Tech had no idea that her smile saved my sanity in that moment. And by making me smile, my mood immediately elevated too. Smiles truly are contagious.

Have you heard of The Smile Experiment? Shawn Achor is a is a happiness researcher, best-selling author, and former Harvard professor of Positive Psychology. He has performed this experiment in hundreds of countries with thousands of people. The basic idea is that participants pair up, and Participant 1 is instructed to smile genuinely at Participant 2. Participant 2 is told that under no circumstances should he/she return the smile. His research shows that almost no one can keep a straight face when someone smiles at them. You just can’t help but smile when someone smiles at you!

Give it a try when you are out and about today. Smile at someone, or everyone, and see what response you get. Not only is the smile good for you, but if you get someone else to smile, they’ll get all of the benefits as well.

There is research to show that smiles (even forced smiles) have tons of positive impact on us, including lowering blood pressure, reducing stress, elevating mood, building confidence and reducing physical pain. I’m not sure about the article that said smiling makes you look younger and thinner, but I AM sure that everyone looks better with a smile on.

So go for it! Get out there a smile today.