[This is one of a series of 30-Day Experiments to do this year instead of New Year’s resolutions.]
In another 30-Day Experiment post, I wrote about an insanely easy way to make the world a better place – just let the compliments already in your head out in the open. Now I’m going to suggest an even easier way.
Are you ready?
Really ready?
Smile!
Yup, that’s it. Nothing more to it than that.
Your 30-Day Experiment is to just smile. Anytime, anywhere, at anyone.
How does that change the world? At a bare minimum, you’re helping create a lot more smiles in the world. When people are on the receiving end of a smile, they tend to smile back (not everyone will – so don’t take it personally!).
That in itself is good – you’ve just created a pleasant interaction that reinforces the idea that maybe the world is a friendly place, or at least that there are friendly people in the world.
But it gets better! Smiling has a bucketload of positive effects that you both get to experience. As this article on Positive Psychology News Daily outlines, smiling…
- Boosts the immune system
- Increases positive affect
- Reduces stress
- Lowers blood pressure
- Enhances other people’s perception of you
So not only are you doing that for yourself, you’re making it more likely that other people will get those benefits as well. Not bad, eh?
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Brought to you by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst TM
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