Feeling down? Try the "smile trick"

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silmcoach
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Feeling down? Try the "smile trick"

Post by silmcoach »

Not so bright this morning? Maybe a little too much work and not enough play.

Try the old "smile" trick. Just close the eyes, pay attention to your body and that "down" feeling in the head for a minute or two. Then keeping the eyes closed, just smile :) , a big smile :D , feel those raised corners of the mouth and those slightly puffed out cheeks. Voila! Your feelings in the moment may change. As with pain or laughter your body let's you know how things are going. So if you smile it may well activate a neural network associated with the smile response that occurs when greeting people or something amuses you. The smile response is reversed such that fast unconscious processing signals to conscious awareness, "Oh, smiling, must be pleased about something". Then you are. Simples.

This little trick has helped me through some very difficult times. Schacter & Singer conducted an experiment where two groups of people were injected with adrenaline. This same hormone is secreted by the adrenal glands whether in response to fear, excitement or anger. The participants were told that some would be injected with a drug that made them happy, and the others told the drug would make them angry. The participants from one group were placed in a room where people where happy and laughing, and those from the second group were placed in a room were people were arguing.

Asked afterwards about their experience in the room they were placed, and which drug they thought they had been injected with, those who had had a happy experience had been placed in the "happy" room and thought they had been injected with the "happy" drug, and those who had had a bad experience thought they had been injected with a drug that made them angry. The physical response to the adrenaline injection was the same, but the experience was interpreted according to the particular environment in which they found themselves.
silmcoach
Greatest wealth - happy heart, peace of mind :D
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