Why You Should Smile Even When You're Not Happy!
Posted on April 23 2015
Yes it's true, fake smiling can boost your mood! Scientists have documented that smiling releases dopamine and serotonin in the brain, dopamine and serotonin both spark a feeling of happiness. In other words, if you're ever feeling down, annoyed or stressed you can simply improve your mood by throwing on a fake smile, perhaps even give it a try now and see you feel any better!
This has been backed up by a study done by the University of Kansas, in this study people were given a series of stressful and challenging tasks whilst holding actual chopsticks on their mouths to form a smile (yes it doesn't sound too comfortable does it). Another group of participants were asked to maintain a smile while completing the same stressful activity. And please note, non of the subjects were told what the study was actually for! When physiological responses were compared with the third control group doing the same stressful task, both genuine and chopstick-induced smilers had lower heart rates and faster cardiovascular stress recovery than the non-smiling controls...crazy isn't it!
