The best time to be happy is when you have no good reason for it.

Being happy is a choice. It’s something we can choose to do. Smile and your mind thinks something good is happening and decides that you’re happy. When your mind thinks something good is happening, your body responds in kind. Stress hormones are lowered and the heart rate evens out and regulates. There is tons of research to back the health benefits of smiling. Apparently smiling can create well-being. And repeated well-being is pretty good for you.

Don’t wait for someone to smile at you before you decide to smile at them. Decide to smile now. Don’t wait for someone to pay you a compliment or congratulate you on an achievement before you decide to be happy. Decide to be happy for no good reason. Decide to be happy now. Not only will you find that you feel better emotionally and physically, but I’d guess that it’s quite possible that happy things may start to happen around you. I’m very excited about this part.

Practice 5 minutes of smiling a few times a day. You might even try 5 minutes every hour, especially if you have a desk job. Stop what you’re doing and smile. If you need to think of something that makes you smile to get you in the mood to smile, then go ahead. Think of a puppy, a baby’s laughter, a slice of your favorite pie, the starry universe. But use your imagination instead of YouTube. Close your eyes, smile, and bask in the feeling of happy.

For those of you who keep a journal or a Bullet Journal (https://bulletjournal.com/), you could create a “habit tracker” for your smile practice. Google has a plethora of options but don’t go down a big research rabbit hole trying to decide what method to use. Just pick the most readily available option and start. Use your online calendar or simply mark your wall calendar. For those of you who meditate you could include 5 minutes of smiling either before or after you do your meditation. If you have a fitness practice (running, yoga, etc.), consider adding 5 minutes of smiling after your cool down, or your Savasana.

I plan to incorporate a smile practice into my days. I hope to increase the number of times I do 5 minutes of smiling each day. I’ll keep track in my journal and report back to you. I hope you’ll try a smile practice too. Let me know what happens after 5, 10, or 20 days. I’ll be doing this with you! I know that I will benefit from a reduction in stress which I’m excited about. But I’m also interested to see what might happen in my daily life — my interactions with others, conversations or opportunities; how, if at all, my daily life might be affected. It’s a big smile experiment! I hope you’ll give it a try too.

Photo credit: Amy Elting on Unsplash