Smile to improve your health

I’m sure most people think that smiling has more benefits socially, maybe to keep relationships/friendships, to become attractive, likeable, trustworthy and even intelligent.

However, what many of us fail to realise is that smiling regardless of our mood, can improve our health and help us live longer. It does not really matter whether the smile is fake or real, it comes with health benefits and that’s because it involves the use of our muscles. So, beyond projecting a happy front, it is recommended to always have a genuine smile that comes slowly and naturally to properly improve your health.

Let’s get to the health benefits of smiling

1. Improved mood

This is particular with people who are depressed and are struggling with anxiety. Smiling genuinely can boost your mood when you’re feeling down. Do you know what smiling really does to people who are depressed? It improves the mood and increases positive thoughts. So if you’re having a bad day, feeling down, disappointed or going through a really tough time, whether it is fake or genuine, try smiling anyway, it may lead to a genuine smile and lift your spirits.

2. Lower blood pressure

It is very common to hear phrases such as ‘I’m smiling from my heart.’ What this means is that our smiling muscles are connected to the heart. Smiling reduces our heart rate/pressure. How? When we smile genuinely, our heart rate first increases and then stabilises, creating an atmosphere for the heart to function well thereby reducing our blood pressure. This is definitely good news to heart. People who smile and laugh more often are less likely to develop heart diseases. So, what do you say?

3. Relief from stress

It does not matter whether you’re feeling happy or not, the truth is that smiling helps your body deal with stressful situations more effectively than we ever imagined. Stress generally causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. It is important to maintain a smile when undergoing stress, it is beneficial to our psychological health.

4. Pain relief

You might probably be thinking about how possible it is for smiling to relief us from pain, but it is true. Researchers have found out that when smiling naturally causes our bodies to release it’s own natural painkillers, causing our bodies to create a higher pain tolerance and increases pain threshold.

5. Longer life

I have never found a better reason to smile and I’m sure you have not heard either. It is really true that smiling a lot increases our lifespan.

 Bottom line

Smiling comes with a lot of health benefits and it is highly recommended to always crack a smile no matter what’s going on.  What more? It is free!!! So keep smiling and keep packing on the benefits.

Happy smiling.