That smile plastered on my face…
On my usual early morning walk, my mind is trashing all the beauty around me - with worry. About Everything. STOP!
STOP halts uninvited texts, but doesn’t seem to work so well with uninvited thoughts. Damn.
A monkey mind and a fast-beating heart. Suddenly, an “aha!” springs out of nowhere and I begin breathing more deeply. What a relief.
Springs out of nowhere? Not really. I smiled. Yep, that’s it - I smiled. Cheap therapy. It really is cheap therapy - not kidding. In a nutshell, “Smiling can trick your brain into believing you’re happy which can then spur actual feelings of happiness.”
Well, hot damn; I like it.
OK, yeah, I’d read this somewhere and it became the seed that germinated as my “aha.” Up came the edges of my mouth, a little further up, and suddenly I had a full-blown smile.
Now, here’s the really odd part. I’m patting myself on the back for remembering the impact of smiling and my outlook is feeling a bit more bright. Well, OK, then, I can probably quit smiling now. NOT. I couldn’t. I’m not kidding you. My lips did not want to lower to their usual horizontal position – no, they did not. So, here I am, walking along with a smile literally plastered on my face. The smile took on a life of its own. I no longer seemed to be in charge…
So I went with it. I mean, who wants to fight with herself over a smile? Not me. I can be flexible (on occasion.) And so I was.
Eventually, my smile subsided on its own. I don’t think I noticed though because I was really enjoying my walk at that point…
First posted, April 2022
I have one of those round, yellow, silly winking smiley faced pillows. The one with it’s tongue out. It’s my favorite pillow! I bought it for myself a few years ago and I love it! Since I have to sleep on my back semi-reclined right now, it helps keep my head from lolling to the left when I fall asleep.
I love when that happens. My aunt gave me a hot pink felt happy face pillow when I was about 10. About 10 years ago I gathered the materials and made it again. We can't be reminded often enough, the power of a smile.