Video Shorts

Smile to Increase Feelings of Happiness and Positivity

This short video explains why we should smile to feel happy and more positive.

Approximate Video Transcription

One of the things that we can do to increase feelings of positivity is to smile. Not always like a buffoon, though.

There are seven universal expressions, or at least depending on whom you ask, and they are innate within all of us regardless of culture. They're connected to our core emotions, the emotions important to us in terms of survival.

We know that facial expressions' purpose is to act as a signalling system. So, if you see me express fear at something over there, you would know there's a source of threat and would automatically look to see what that threat is, to see if it's a threat to you too.

There's another reason for facial expressions, which serves a physiological purpose within our bodies. One example is the emotion of disgust. When we feel disgusted, the purpose of the emotion is to keep us safe from toxins, for example, from ingesting toxins.

One of the key things that happens in the facial expression of disgust is the nose wrinkle. As the nose wrinkles, it pulls the eyes down, the eye aperture closes, and the tongue often comes out. Researchers have found that airflow into the lungs reduces when the nose wrinkles. Therefore, we're less likely to ingest bacteria and virus through the lungs. The narrowing of the eyes that occurs means we're less likely to take in toxins through our eyes, and the tongue coming out is an expelling. Often we get a feeling of nausea with disgust too. So facial expression acts to help us deal with emotion–to keep us safe and aid survival.

In fear and surprise, when the eyes widen, the reason is that we can take in more light to assess the threat or the potential threat if it is surprise.

Smiling releases feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and endorphins. What this does to the body, physiologically, is it helps us to relax and reduces stress, blood pressure and heart rate.

The great news is that even if you can't pull out a genuine smile of happiness, then do a fake smile, which is a smile with the mouth and not the eyes. A lot of people find it quite difficult to activate this muscle (around the eyes) unless they're feeling genuinely happy. The easiest way to trigger a genuine smile is to think of something that makes you happy, smile or laugh. But we know that even if you fake it, smiling with only your mouth, it increases feelings of happiness.