Smiling Makes You Happy: The Importance of Staying Positive

It sounds hokey, like something you'd find in those "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books, but this is actually backed by serious research.

According to Psychologist Robert Zajonc: "There is now compelling evidence that smiling causes people to feel happy. Requiring people to smile, no matter how they really feel at first, results in increased positive feelings; frowning conversely decreases positive feelings." ( Zajonc, R. B., S. T. Murphy, & M. Inglehart, "Feeling and Facial Efference: Implications of the Vascular Theory of Emotion" Psychological Review 96 (1989): 395-416.)

We've all met people who are negative. I have a friend who, during his high school years, became extremely critical. Things were going very poorly for him his senior year and every time I met him he would say something like, "What a crappy day."

After a while I didn't want to hang out with him any more.

It was from watching him and seeing my reaction that I discovered the value in trying to be positive. I found that if I didn't make an effort to smile and look on the bright side, I would slip into negativity, complain and criticize others.

But if I smiled first thing in the morning and said to myself, "This is going to be a great day!" then it usually was (or at least a good day).

One more anecdote.

I used to work for a dotcom that went bust. Two months prior to its demise rumors were flying and everyone was on edge, wondering if they were going to get paid (we weren't). But my superior would come in every morning with a big smile on his face and greet everyone with a cheerful "Hello." Right up to the last day.

Later, after we had all left the company for good, I found out that my superior had actually been hit much harder than the rest of us. He stopped getting paid months before the rest of us, and had told the owner that he'd rather not get paid than see the lowest-rung employees -- who were much more dependant on their paychecks -- go without. He was, of course, hoping the company would turn around. It didn't.

He ended up losing his house.

I spoke with him a year or two later. He had moved out of state, found a much lower-paying job and was getting by. But he was as cheerful as ever.

"Why be bitter and angry about the past?" he told me. "That's not going to help the situation."

He was right.