Hello Pomponnette,
Does it make you feel good when you see someone smile too? We're giving you 4 reasons to convince those around you to smile more every day! - Get ready, it's going to be... an effort! -.
Did you know that when you smile, you work no less than 17 muscles?
The muscle responsible for smiling is the zygomaticus major, which pulls the upper lip up and the corners of the mouth outwards.
As children, we smile on average 400 times a day, whereas as adults, we only smile 5 times: as we get older, we lose our smile! - and we have several culprits in mind: the laundry piling up in the basket, the empty fridge when we get home at night... -.
So let's go, here are 4 reasons to have a daily smile. The goal: to smile as much as we did when we were children.
Reason N°1: Smiling extends life expectancy
According to one study*, we could live 7 years longer if we smiled more!
The proof: it analyzes 230 photos of baseball players classified into 3 categories: "big smile" / "partial smile" / "no smile", and correlates them with their age at death.
- And bam - It turns out that those who didn't smile died on average at 72.9 years old, while those who had a big grin lived until 79.9 years old - smiling to live 7 years longer, isn't that worth it, Pomponnette? -.
Well, this study is what it is, but we like it a lot and above all we believe in it, because it has also been scientifically proven that smiling decreases heart rate, which could confirm the thing!
There's also this Chinese proverb: "smiling 3 times every day makes all medicine useless", do you know it?
Reason N°2: Smiling makes you happy
When we smile, our body releases endorphins, the hormone responsible for the sensation of pleasure. If you exercise, do you know that moment after 30 minutes of effort where you feel good, strong, euphoric...? That's because your body is producing this famous endorphin! - well ok, sometimes we're just at the end of our rope... -.
A smile is contagious! So in turn, we can make people happy by smiling. - Do you also smile foolishly when you see someone smile, without knowing why? -.
According to one study, offering a sincere smile to someone could generate, by chain reaction, up to 500 smiles in a day - can you imagine? -. So we're counting on you to spread your beautiful smile, and remember: a smile costs nothing, but it's worth its weight in gold!
Reason N°3: Smiling relaxes you
In the 1980s, a French neurologist put forward the idea that: « 1 minute of laughter is comparable to 45 minutes of relaxation ». Laughter allows us, among other things, to release anxieties, pressure and daily stress.
In fact, when we smile, we reduce the release of cortisol - the famous stress hormone - and in reaction, our brain will release dopamine "the happiness neurotransmitter". And the more dopamine we have, the happier we feel! - which adds to the endorphin, which we talked about earlier! -. This has also been scientifically proven**!
Reason N°4: Smiling makes you beautiful
As Marilyn Monroe would say: "A smile is the best makeup a woman can wear". And here, there's no need to bring out a scientific study or any other theory, you can see for yourself: the same person is much more beautiful when she smiles than when she's sulking, Pomponnette's word!
So Pomponnette, among these 4 reasons, which one motivates you the most to smile?
Let's spread the Smile Power,
Agathe & Charline
*Study by Wayne State University published in 2010
**Study by doctors at the University of Kansas published in the journal Psychological Science in 2012