Smile to Look Better and Live Longer

by Posted in Communication, Emotion, Gifts, Gratitude, growth, happiness, Health, Kindness, Laughter, Laughter Yoga, positive influence, Positive Psychology, Positivity Tagged , , , , Leave a comment

Smile to Look Better and Live Longer

Debbie Lyn Toomey, RN
Author of The Happiness Result

Smile!

Smiling is my favorite yoga pose. It makes me feel better and puts a smile on others’ faces, too.

It’s a natural mind-body and body-mind happiness booster. When you’re happy, you typically smile and your whole body responds by releasing a cascade of feel-good hormones. What’s also interesting is that even when you are not happy, and you smile, you can trick you brain into thinking that you’re happy, and will start releasing the same feel-good hormones as if you were truly happy. That is why smiling is both a mind-body and a body-mind technique that we can use to add more positivity into our daily life.

Smiling, as you may know, is contagious and conveys so many nice feelings to others who are lucky enough to see it. The words to an old song said it all. “When you’re smiling, when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you.” There is research on smiling that has revealed many interesting bits of information that will surely make you do it more often.

Here are five simple facts about smiling that can help you look better and live longer.

  1. Smiling boosts your mood and increases your sense of well-being. Dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins get released and make you feel very good. Next time you want to feel better, smile. This action will trick your brain into thinking that you feel happy and it, in turn, will start releasing feel-good hormones to match it.
  2. Smiling makes you look younger. People who smile are perceived as looking years younger than those with a frown on their face. If you ever want to look younger than your age, smile more.
  3. Smiling makes you look thinner. People who are frowning are also perceived as looking heavier than those who are smiling. Smiling seems to portray people as healthier and thinner. If you want to look slimmer, be sure to smile more.
  4. Smiling can predict your life span. Researchers studied old baseball cards. It was found that baseball players who had big smiles on their face lived longer than those who did not have big smiles on the pictures. Professional players who had beaming smiles lived approximately seven years longer than their counterparts.
  5. Smiling makes you look friendly and kind. Experts determined that people who smiled were perceived as being better natured than those who didn’t. People who did not smile were thought of as being unwelcoming.

These are just a few fun facts about smiling that I hope will brighten your day. Next time you want to feel happier, look younger and thinner, and appear friendlier, flash your pearly whites. Because if you do, you might just live longer. Smiling can make someone’s day, too. If you are around people who are stressed and overworked, try giving a nice warm smile to show your support and concern. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. Best of all, it’s free! Who knows, your smile could just be the best thing that could happen to them that day. To learn more about how we can work together visit www.HealthandHappinessSpecialist.com.

Boost Happiness and Burn Calories within Minutes

by Posted in Health, Laughter, Laughter Yoga, Yoga Tagged , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This past weekend was full of laughter!

Last Saturday I started my 4 week Laughter Yoga™ class at a nearby yoga studio, and last Sunday was World Laughter Day. As a Laughter Yoga™ teacher I still get so amazed at the power of laughter and how it instantly transforms people. I love it when new participants come into my Laughter Yoga™ class with a perplexed, “I don’t really know what I am in for” kind of look. When I explain to them about what laughter is and how it can bring us to a place of oneness, they immediately see the genius in it. The reason why I wanted to learn this form of yoga is that it’s easy, playful, and non-intimidating. If you can laugh and take deep breaths then you can do it!


No Yoga Experience Necessary

It can be done literally anywhere. Further, it’s a wonderful way to get people, who are intimidated with the concept of yoga, to get the feeling of blissful mind-body-spirit connection that yoga delivers. Laughter Yoga™ can be done sitting or standing and with no yoga experience. I’ve had the honor of doing this yoga for stroke patients in rehabilitation centers, for seniors, for low income housing residents, cancer survivors, care givers, health care professionals, and even Harvard researchers!

As a nurse and a Laughter Yoga™ teacher I get invited to speak at corporate retreats, cancer survivor events, and hospitals. I really enjoy sharing practical information with people so that they can be inspired and reminded to add more laughter to their day. This exercise is perfect for those who can “use more laughter” in their lives.

Laughter Yoga word cloud with site-59210
Experts Seriously Studying Laughter

The science of laughter, Gelotology, is a field that has been getting attention from researchers since 1964. Researchers like Dr. Edith Trager and Dr. William Fry are the pioneers in this field.  In the 1970’s Norman Cousins, writer and magazine editor for the Saturday Review, was diagnosed with a painful and debilitating autoimmune disease. When his own doctors could not help him cure or manage his pain, he discharged himself from the hospital and checked into a hotel where he used high doses of Vitamin C and laughter to cure his disease. He found that 10 minutes of deep belly laughter gave him 2 hours of pain-free sleep.


7 Fun-Facts

Here are some fun and interesting facts about laughter:

  1. 1 minute of deep hearty laughter is equivalent to 10 minutes of rowing a boat or jogging!
  2.  Deep hearty laughter is an aerobic exercise.
  3. We can “Fake it til’ we make it.” Our mind doesn’t know the difference between fake and real laughter. We feel good either way.
  4. Kids laugh 300-400 times a day. Adult laughs approximate 50 times a day.
  5. It’s a social contagion. It’s catchy and people who hear it also benefit from the sound of laughter increasing the positivity in the environment.
  6. Deep hearty laughter reduces tension and boosts energy.
  7. Deep hearty laughter can boost the immune system.


LOL

Next time you find that you’ve run out of time to work out or if you are feeling low, why not try laughing? Start with a “fake” laughter and just keep going until you start feeling better. You don’t have to wait for someone to make you laugh out loud (LOL.) You can get started anytime. Remember, whether it’s fake or real laughter your body will respond to it and you will begin to release your stress and tension and pretty soon you will start to burn calories. Yes, with laughter you can boost your happiness and burn calories within minutes.

Interested in more ways to sustain a high level of positivity in your life, contact us at info@ultimatehealingjourney.com to find out. We can work together in helping you reach your dream of living a happy and healthy life.