October Smiles

Typically, when October rolls in with the cooler temperatures and cloudy days, so do "the blues." But this year, I decided to replace the blues with smiles. Sitting in staff meeting one day after school, I noticed that, as one of my co-workers was listening intently, the corners of her mouth were pulled way down into the biggest frown I've ever seen. It's as if she's trained her face to do that when it's not doing anything else. So I figured, if a person can train their face to naturally frown, then perhaps I can train my face to naturally smile. Besides, it's supposedly less work to smile than it is to frown.

So that was my resolution for October. Whenever I wasn't feeling so happy, I would smile. Whenever I was getting stressed out or bogged down, I would smile. Whenever I was talking to someone or listening in a meeting, I would smile. Whenever my face wasn't doing anything else, I would just simply smile.

And it felt good! It relaxes your whole body and makes everything just a little better than it was before. The effect of a simple smile is pretty powerful, on oneself and those who receive it!