Remember when I wrote to you back in January about the power of smiling? Well my favorite Zen Artists, Leo Babauta feels the same way.
Check it out:
There’s a tendency to get caught up in the tasks of our day, the urgency of what’s coming up, the distractions of being online.
And we forget to smile.
In the rush of the day, the stress of wanting things to happen a certain way, we lose the enjoyment of each moment.
In every moment, there’s the capacity for happiness.
Yes…the capacity for happiness. A few years ago I shared about new research on this fact, that happy people were more successful people. As I wrote back then, “Professor Alice Isen, the Cornell psychologist who researched what happens when people feel good, says, “You are a stronger person and more resilient to negative forces,” she says. “People are more likely to do what they want to do when they are in positive affect.” She says it’s conceivable that people with self-esteem issues might become more assertive if they put Thank You Power to work.
Robert Emmons, the University of California-Davis professor who coauthored that groundbreaking catalog of the benefits of daily gratitude, says that practicing what he’s studied has made a huge impact in his own life. “I came more from the side of the whining, complaining group. You know, the people who have a sense of entitlement or deservingness. I think gratitude has helped me shift my own frame of reference. It has really made a difference in my life.”
Leo added a wonderful list of reasons to smile. Check it out:
You can smile in each and every moment.
OK, maybe you don’t need a smile on your face all day long — your cheeks will feel tired. But we can smile more, and in between physical smiles, we can have an internal smile.
Try an internal smile now: have a calm, unsmiling face, but think of the miracle of this moment, and find a thought to smile about. Feel the smiling feeling inside. Isn’t that amazing?
What do you have to smile about in this moment?
Some ideas:
- You have someone in your life who cares about you.
- There is beauty all around you, in many forms.
- You are generous, compassionate, and good-hearted.
- You have someone you can help.
- You have eaten today.
- You can move.
- You can see the sun shining.
- You can appreciate the leaves of a tree, rain falling, wind blowing.
- You can taste chocolate.
- You get to spend time with someone you love.
- You have music in your life.
- You get to create something.
So, as Leo closes it, so will I: “We can be content with every moment. It changes your life, because too often we miss the smile-ability of life when we are not paying attention.”
So, make sure you smile today.