Smiling. Part I.
If I told you smiling helps you live longer, would you believe me?
Well you should. Because I just pulled up like five interesting sources that I was thinking of talking about and then thought HEY! STICK WITH SMILING STORIES! NOT BORING RESEARCH!
So no research. I’m not writing a thesis.
Just know that if you smile you will live longer. It’s proven somewhere.
But seriously, you have to make yourself smile. You especially have to make it happen if it’s not been happening enough.
You know who you are.
I was thinking about smiles lately because of Rachael Ray and Paris Hilton.
Rachael Ray is leaving her show and Paris Hilton had a baby and wrote a book! There’s a lot going on!
But they both have smiling in common. They’re both like professional smilers!
Paris Hilton smiles all the time. I’m just noticing it now because she’s popping up a lot lately on tv and internet.
And every time I see her she is smiling. Even if nothing is going on.
Paris Hilton looks like she has just been presented with a gift.
All the time.
And it makes me smile because I start thinking of reasons she could be smiling like that and I think of really funny things.
And none of them have to do with a baby that someone had for her. In fact, many of them are followed by “Didn’t she just have a baby?”
And Rachael Ray – I’ve been thinking about her lately because she is ending her show. Rachael Ray is a very smiley person.
I would know because Rachael Ray was my smile mentor in 2009.
In 2009, I was working out near Ft. Meade in an operations setting. And that’s all I can say.
But I will also, for the sake of the story, say that I was the lone attorney in a sea of highly technical professionals.
And that’s all I can say.
But Rachael Ray was my guide and my savior at that time.
Because I had spent the past many years around lawyer types who never smiled. And now I needed to prove that I knew how to smile because otherwise I would fit the description of a boring lawyer type who didn’t know how to smile.
So at night I would watch taped shows of Rachael Ray who smiled all the time. And I would take notes on how to smile while talking to other people. And then the next day at work I would practice.
And Rachael Ray was the hot ticket to smiling, for me. I would just say – inside my head – “do your Rachael Ray!” and I would smile the most inviting smile ever.
Now it’s possible I was just walking around looking mentally ill.
I suppose we would have to ask my colleagues from that time. But let’s not.
I just hope I smiled a lot. In the normal friendly person looking way.
So anyway, the point of all this is that you need to make sure you’re smiling.
I know how hard it is to smile when life is really hard, but it’s important to do something that switches your brain into the mode where it can be lighter and brighter and hooked or crooked by something other than whatever it is all wrapped up in.
And here’s the thing: you can’t wait until you’re in the mood to smile. You could be waiting a really long time. Especially if you’re out of practice.
So you have to make it happen even if you’re not in the mood.
Actually, you have to make it happen especially if you’re not in the mood.
Not all the time, of course.
But sometimes.
Or more often, if you’re really out of practice.
This is for really just for some of you who are just really out of practice.
At the risk of sounding redundant, I’ll just say you know who you are since you probably do.
So go. Make the smiling happen. You know how.
xoxoxoxo, dee (and bella)