Smile Often!

      I have learned how to smile! Yes, you heard that right; I have learned! For about the past ten years you see, I have suffered from chronic pain in the neck (literally, not figuratively) due to osteoarthritis that causes severe headaches, almost incessant muscle spasms in my neck, and very stiff joints that even with regular stretching and exercise still cause a lot of pain in my shoulders and neck muscles. So for the first several years of this,  I would of course sometimes smile but I really didn't have my heart and soul into it. So in reality, despite my best efforts, at times it would actually be a fake smile because I was in a lot of pain and I didn't know how to control it.

     But things changed when I started to realize that despite the pain I could be happy and enjoy every moment. I then decided to study (yes study) how smiling and other ways of positive thinking can influence the brain and the body in general. What I realized was that if I became more mindful of the people and things that do make me happy and do make me want to smile, then through practice I can actually ensure that not only can I smile often but that my smiles are genuine! If you don't believe me, try it! Practice it daily. Visualize what makes you happy and then smile! Your whole body changes! Honestly! Smiling can feel like you have won the lottery if you allow yourself to believe it! It literally can change the physiology of your body to the point where pain may not be entirely removed, but it sure as heck is lessened to some degree. Just ask me! Yes, I still suffer from day to day neck pain, headaches and other joint aches, but through smiling and positive thinking in general, my quality of life has improved dramatically over the last five or so years!  So in conclusion, please try to remember to smile lots today; I know I will!