Self Improvement for Beginners

Sometimes, when I walk to work, I like to look at the people I walk past—the woman jogging with her dog, the man selling newspapers, the boy watering the family’s front lawn. The other day, I noticed that many of the people I passed by look gloomy, sad, and dull—all of them were frowning (or at least had an apathetic look on their face)! Today, I realized that I, myself, had a neutral frown on my face. When I got home from work today, I told myself, “That, that’s what I’m going to write about on Self Improvement for Beginners! Learning how to smile.”

Smiling is not an automatic response for many people. Oftentimes, unless we catch ourselves, our faces settle into a semi-frown, or a frown if we’re stressed. I believe that we should smile more often. As they say, “Smile and the world smiles back at you.”

Smiling offers us the opportunity for a more positive outlook in life. It encourages us to think positive thoughts and it makes us seem more open. Although smiling when you’re alone is an undoubtedly good thing, smiling when others are present is even better. From its natural essence, smiling is an expression of happiness. From its natural form, it’s something to keep not only to ourselves, but we have to share it with others. It is an outward display of joy, but without something to view ourselves by, we cannot see our own smile.

Smiling allows us to go out of ourselves, and opens up opportunities to form relationships with others. On the “I” level, when we seem happier many people will tend to treat us happily as well, which in turn will probably improve our day. On the “other” level, smiling at others will cause a few of them to think we’re crazy, but for most people, it causes an improvement in their day and sometimes, they even smile back.

A key to happiness is not to stay focused on only yourself.

After all this talk about smiles, it’s important to know that the smiles mentioned above are either cordial, backed by good intentions, or a genuine, happy smile. People say that frowns use up a lot more face muscles than smiles. But I think that you shouldn’t smile just because it uses up less facial muscles, smile because you feel happy or because you want to make an effort to brighten yours, and others days up. Remember, Smile and the world smiles with you.


Toodles,
Amy