Great to finally see you emerge from the shadows, and what a way to emerge…I was smiling from start to finish over here.

Peace,

Wade

Yes, it’s all so simple. Smiling at someone can completely disarm them of their negativity. Smiling has a calming effect on the giver and the receiver.

Somthing happened to me recently that I would like to share:

A few days ago I had to get an Endoscopy procedure done. In case you or any of the readers aren’t familiar with this - it is when the doctor takes a good look down your throat all the way to the intestines. I was really scared about this and wondered how I was ever going to go through with it. I thought it was going to be just awful and that I would be gagging, choking and unable to breathe. But, when the doctor turned to me with a gentle and reassuring smile on his face, I was instantly calmed. The doctor explained that I would receive sedation shortly which would not render me unconscious, but would put me in a ‘twilight’ which would make the procedure bearable.

Well, the Endoscopy went very well. I must confess that the drug they gave me worked very well indeed. I did not care at all about what was happening to me. However, the thing that remember most was the smile on the doctors face. I told him afterward that he had a very good bedside manner.

Since this happened I have been acutely aware of the power of a smile.
I try an impart one to people whenever I can and it makes a real difference.

Thanks for sharing with us, Rebecca. I hope to read more from you in the future. : )

I really enjoyed this article, and hope you write some more in the future. Reading this blog is considered part of the little ‘rewards’ that I let myself have, after a hard day of bumming and scratching my ass. Heh, my point is - I really enjoy reading both your material!

Thank you. I am fairly blushing over here . . . and smiling, too, of course!

I am so honored to know this entire community—the writers and the readers—and to know that we are all helping one other, and welcoming others in the process, to explore this magical journey called ‘Life’.

=) Rebecca

Thank you for sharing your story! It’s amazing how a simple smile can set us so at ease–they really stand out like a ray of sunlight in a cloudy day.

Say, the next smile you send out, put your signature on it and I’ll see how long it takes before it reaches me. I bet it won’t be long!

Shine on-
=) Rebecca

HooRaY for awesome husbands!! And I’m right on with you as far as spreading a smile that reaches around the world. In fact, let’s send it out into space and beyond! (Can you imagine if our ‘first contact’ was a smile?)

=) Rebecca

=) Rebecca

So true, I know this from experience, but it keeps surprising me every time it happens!

Enjoyed your writing and thoughts about SMILES…Reminded me of a short piece I wrote a while back…will share it if you don’t mind

*********

I’d walk a mile…for a smile

Did you ever notice how a smile often disarms people and leads to a good feeling inside both the smiler and the smile-ee?

I’m sure there are scientific research studies on the topic; physiological explanations as to why the triggering of certain facial muscles in a particular order and/or fashion triggers such a pleasant response.

Plainly, smiling for it’s own sake infects others with the epidemic of smiling; even when these others may not know what the instigator was originally smiling about.

Sometimes it seems we have to walk through a crowd for a mile or more just in order to encounter a another person with a smile. Perhaps it’s a sign of our times?…Maybe we just don’t take the time to notice someone else’s current state of pleasure.

Ironically, though, we, ourselves, can be the smile instigator…we don’t have to search for an elusive smile encounter…it’s so easy to be the first to smile and share the joy of it with others as we pass them by.

Seems to me, ‘I’d walk with a smile for a mile’ seems to be a much better way to put it…

John Torcello

Thank you for pointing that out! (I never used to think that I could make myself feel better just by putting a smile on my face, but crazily enough it works.) I encourage everyone to give it a shot sometime!

=) R

Right back at’cha!

R

Well said! I’m a big fan of being an instigator, especially when spreading smiles and happiness is involved

=) R

Thanks

Nick

Even the tiny little symbol of a smile on the computer ~always~ brings me a smile.

I do try very often to engage a stranger with a smile. It certainly was not always the case for me though… in my childhood years, the years
of my parent’s alcoholism, so often people would say to me…

“You would be so pretty if you only smiled”. I would look at them blankly and think to myself, there is not much to smile about. I would then
attempt to fake a smile back, but that message as often as I heard it, it seared me internally. It was not until many
years later, that I did come to know my own beauty inside, almost like the
older Deb not only smiled to the little Deb, but embraced her and said… “you know you were beautiful back then smile or no smile”

Thank you Rebecca for the message and the chance to reflect on this.

xo xo
Deb

I like that– ‘contagious virus’. You could put people off their guard by telling them that you have a contagious virus. Then, when they give you that look (you know, where they are slightly horrified inside but are trying hard not to show it), you can smile and laugh and say:

‘Yeah, it’s called smiling!’

I bet it would help them spread even faster. . .

Rebecca

Thank you, thank you for sharing that thought!! It is so very true. We may never know how many people we have touched with our smile, or exactly what kind of small (or large) miracles it may lead to in their lives– the fact is, however, that we DO touch people with our smiles. It’s like having a magic super-power! (Who needs a cape? Unless it’s a rilly rilly cool one with a pointy hood . . .)

=) R

Beautiful, simply beautiful. Thank you for sharing!

:O) Rebecca