1) You create good vibes for free
I love to smile. It's so easy to do, costs you nothing, and inspires happiness in people. The more you smile the more you get smiled at. You're creating smilers in your wake as you glide along an ocean of smiles. I'm smiling right now as I write this.
How is it that some of us spend so much of our day without smiling? Many of us are constantly thinking about stuff. Plans, duties, work, obligations, I'm frowning just thinking about all that. A smile is like a conscious letting go of thought. When's the last time you saw a picture of a guy smiling super hard and thought "he must be really lost in thought." It just doesn't work that way. The first step to smiling more is to think less. This won't make you stupid, or irresponsible. If anything it will help you think more clearly during the times you do have to think.
I'd like share some advice on how to be a good smiler, so you don't have to fear that you're walking around creepin' people out. There's really only one thing to consider - why are you smiling?
It's easy to spot a fake smile, but I'd argue there's a difference between a forced smile and a fake smile. A forced smile is a smile that took some effort on your part, even if that effort was just not being afraid to smile. Most smiles are forced smiles. A fake smile is a smile that is forced for the wrong reasons. Obviously we all love those uncontrollable super bliss smiles, but if you want to smile more you're going to have to accept not all smiles come so easily! That said, I promise you by the third or fourth forced smile, you will probably have changed your mood enough that you're smiling for real.
It's the intent behind the smile that matters. If your intent is to create good vibes, you will.
How is it that some of us spend so much of our day without smiling? Many of us are constantly thinking about stuff. Plans, duties, work, obligations, I'm frowning just thinking about all that. A smile is like a conscious letting go of thought. When's the last time you saw a picture of a guy smiling super hard and thought "he must be really lost in thought." It just doesn't work that way. The first step to smiling more is to think less. This won't make you stupid, or irresponsible. If anything it will help you think more clearly during the times you do have to think.
I'd like share some advice on how to be a good smiler, so you don't have to fear that you're walking around creepin' people out. There's really only one thing to consider - why are you smiling?
It's easy to spot a fake smile, but I'd argue there's a difference between a forced smile and a fake smile. A forced smile is a smile that took some effort on your part, even if that effort was just not being afraid to smile. Most smiles are forced smiles. A fake smile is a smile that is forced for the wrong reasons. Obviously we all love those uncontrollable super bliss smiles, but if you want to smile more you're going to have to accept not all smiles come so easily! That said, I promise you by the third or fourth forced smile, you will probably have changed your mood enough that you're smiling for real.
It's the intent behind the smile that matters. If your intent is to create good vibes, you will.
2) It's karmically smart
Photo credit to truthinsideofyou.org
Karma, known also as the law of balance in the Universe is known to most people in the Western world as, if I take out the garbage I'll probably get a blow-job. Actually, that's a pretty decent example of karma. A worse example would be, if I'm a nice person I'm entitled to a lot of money. Karma doesn't work that way, it's more like the law that dictates that which you willfully act upon will return to you in some form. Energy out = energy in. That sort of deal.
Immense consequences have their birthplace in small actions. Your unknowing decision to smile at a suicidal person, for instance, may save their life. Conversely, your decision to be a raging douche may cause a nuclear holocaust by initiating a wave of hatred that eventually reaches North Korea. You can never know the full results of your actions, only your intent. Smile more, and maybe your smiles will save us all? It's possible.
A question might arise the more you dwell on karma: If the whole world is simply cause and effect - a giant domino ring planted by a mysterious cosmic entity or the laws of physics - then why bother doing anything? If that were true I would agree, but it's not quite so simple. The domino ring, in my view, is our perception and the push is our intention. Where we choose to put our intention (and attention), is guiding our experience of the Universe. That is why it is so important to be free from mistaking the outside world as influencing the world you create. You must realize this very ideology makes it so. Always it is you vibrating out your world, to realize that is to regain power over karma.
If there is no reason to smile, and you find one anyway, you're changing the course of history.
A question might arise the more you dwell on karma: If the whole world is simply cause and effect - a giant domino ring planted by a mysterious cosmic entity or the laws of physics - then why bother doing anything? If that were true I would agree, but it's not quite so simple. The domino ring, in my view, is our perception and the push is our intention. Where we choose to put our intention (and attention), is guiding our experience of the Universe. That is why it is so important to be free from mistaking the outside world as influencing the world you create. You must realize this very ideology makes it so. Always it is you vibrating out your world, to realize that is to regain power over karma.
If there is no reason to smile, and you find one anyway, you're changing the course of history.
3) It connects you
I like to look at a smile as your half of the giving/receiving circle. We smile because there are people to smile at. It naturally connects us with that person. I'll go out on a limb and say it's impossible to feel at odds with someone while smiling at each other.
We smile to say thanks. We smile to say I love you. We smile to say "that was a funny joke!" Smiles are notoriously positive. Smiling at strangers is a way of saying, "hey, I may not know you, but I appreciate all you've done for me behind the scenes."
With this holiday coming up, if you're about to take part in that big consumerist watering hole known as Christmas shopping, consider this - a smile is a gift in and of itself. How many people you've have shared happiness with lately? How many could you have shared happiness with? Giving back to the world doesn't always mean being Mother Teresa, it could be as simple as a smile.
Emanuel Caparelli is a poet-adventurer who loves to inspire new and invigorating ideas, with the goal of helping nudge our world in the direction of freedom and peace. You can read some of his poetry here.
We smile to say thanks. We smile to say I love you. We smile to say "that was a funny joke!" Smiles are notoriously positive. Smiling at strangers is a way of saying, "hey, I may not know you, but I appreciate all you've done for me behind the scenes."
With this holiday coming up, if you're about to take part in that big consumerist watering hole known as Christmas shopping, consider this - a smile is a gift in and of itself. How many people you've have shared happiness with lately? How many could you have shared happiness with? Giving back to the world doesn't always mean being Mother Teresa, it could be as simple as a smile.
Emanuel Caparelli is a poet-adventurer who loves to inspire new and invigorating ideas, with the goal of helping nudge our world in the direction of freedom and peace. You can read some of his poetry here.
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