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To Be Successful and Happier – SMILE!

In our fast-paced world everyone is searching for a sure fire way to be more productive and happier. Well, the answer is easy and something we do involuntarily – it is the simple action of smiling! If it sounds too simple to be true, here’s the science behind it:

With every smile a powerful chemical reaction is created. Psychology Today explains, “When you smile, neuropeptides that help reduce stress are released. These neuropeptides send messages to your entire body when you’re happy, excited, sad, or depressed. The feel-good neurotransmitters — dopamine, endorphins and serotonin — are all released when a smile flashes across your face. This relaxes your body and can also lower your blood pressure and heart rate.”

Babies practice smiling soon after birth, it’s a simple biological reflex and an essential human gesture. Babies are actually born smiling!

Roger Dooley, in his Forbes post suggests how to change your emotional state by smiling. “Pasting a smile on your face, even if it is inauthentic, can improve your mood and reduce stress. We think of our face as reflecting our internal emotions, but that linkage works both ways – we can change our emotional state by altering our facial expression.”

The currency of business is relationships and they are built on trust. K. Schmidt of the University of Pittsburgh says, “Facial attractiveness is associated with a variety of positive social characteristics including trustworthiness. Variations in smiling have likewise been linked with positive judgments of trustworthiness.” Walk into a room with a smile and you will appear more likable and courteous, and actually perceived to be more competent.

In his article “Seven Ways Smiling Makes You More Productive,” Chris Bailey cites a study from the Cognition & Emotion Journal, which found that “people who maintain a slight smile were able to manage their attention better as well as step back from the work they were doing to focus on the bigger picture.” The benefits of a grin at the office go much farther than a better mood at the end of the day. Happiness leads to productivity and in 2010 a team of economic researchers found this has a significant positive causal effect in the workplace. As the positive emotions prove invigorating, keep in mind and be warned, the negative ones are equally draining.

Here’s the bonus take-away, smiles are contagious! You’ve likely noticed that when someone enters the elevator you’re on, if you smile at them, they’ll likely smile back. In the article “The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social” in Scientific American, Neuroscientist Marco Icaboni says, “when I see you smiling, my mirror neurons for smiling fire up, too, initiating a cascade of neural activity that evokes the feeling we typically associate with a smile. I don’t need to make any inference on what you are feeling, I experience immediately and effortlessly (in a milder form, of course) what you are experiencing.”

Convinced that smiling is the special sauce to success and happiness? Remember to smile and watch your mood (and the moods of those around you) elevate.

Adapted from William Arruda who is the cofounder of CareerBlast .