Simply Smiling May Boost Your Outlook

Smiling can trick your mind into being more positive, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of South Australia found that the simple act of moving your facial muscles into a smile can make you view the world more positively.

“When your muscles say you’re happy, you’re more likely to see the world around you in a positive way,” said a human and artificial cognition expert at the university.

He and his colleagues studied how people interpret various images of facial and bodily expressions that range from happy to sad, based on whether they were smiling themselves.

The study involved 256 volunteers from Japan, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Participants were asked to hold a pen between their teeth, an act that forces facial muscles to replicate the motions of a smile.

They were then shown images of facial expressions that ranged from frowning to smiling, and videos of a person walking in different positions, ranging from “sad walking” to “happy walking.”

The participants viewed each image or video with and without a pen in their teeth, and then evaluated if the evoked emotion was “happy” or “sad.”

The researchers observed that the participants were more likely to view a broader range of the images and videos as “happy” when smiling themselves.

“In our research, we found that when you forcefully practice smiling, it stimulates the amygdala — the emotional center of the brain — which releases neurotransmitters to encourage an emotionally positive state,” researchers said in a university news release.

The results suggest that everyone, and particularly those suffering from mental health issues like anxiety and depression, may benefit from the simple act of smiling.

“For mental health, this has interesting implications. If we can trick the brain into perceiving stimuli as ‘happy,’ then we can potentially use this mechanism to help boost mental health,” researchers said. “A ‘fake it till you make it’ approach could have more credit than we expect.”

The study was published recently in the journal Experimental Psychology.

Tips to Boost Your Mental Health

• Track gratitude and achievement with a journal. Include 3 things you were grateful for and 3 things you were able to accomplish each day.
• Start your day with a cup of co­ffee. Coff­ee consumption is linked to lower rates of depression. If you can’t drink coff­ee because of the caff­eine, try another good-for-you drink like green tea.
• Set up a getaway. It could be camping with friends or a trip to the tropics. The act of planning a vacation and having something to look forward to can boost your overall happiness for up to 8 weeks!
•  4. Work your strengths. Do something you’re good at to build self-confidence, then tackle a tougher task.
• Keep it cool for a good night’s sleep. The optimal temperature for sleep is between 60- and 67-degrees Fahrenheit.