Why We Should Carry a Smile and Live Life Joyfully

 

By Aung Kyaw Thant

 

EVEN just one smile on your face in a day can bring you a sense of re­lief and comfort. The small act known as a smile can have a pro­found impact in the human world and serves as a companion that speaks louder than words when it comes to living a joyful life.

 

In everyone’s life, we gradu­ally face challenges and difficul­ties that can at times feel over­whelming. However, even during moments of discouragement for various reasons, a simple smile on the face can help ease our emotional state to some extent. A person’s smile can also influ­ence the emotions of others and help reduce their mental stress.

 

Duo activities

Everyone happy can bring a smile, which represents satis­faction on their faces. No one can bring a smile while facing suffer­ing and unhappiness. Hence, the smiling move and the emotion of happiness and satisfaction are in­separable. That is why individuals have to nurture their souls to be able to bring smiles by overcom­ing sufferings and challenges, as well as by searching root causes of happiness in life. Everybody needs to consider that if they use smiles as a tool to build a happy society, the entire world can cease unhappiness, sadness and grief.

 

The power of a smile

A smile is a natural and deep­ly valuable human behaviour that belongs to everyone. For exam­ple, when a mother smiles at her young child, that smile conveys a sense of safety and acceptance to the child. In the same way, in everyday life, a smile serves as a rustproof bridge that builds strong connections between one­self and those around them.

 

Scientifically speaking, when a person smiles, the body releas­es natural feel-good chemicals such as serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. These substances help generate feelings of satis­faction and emotional well-be­ing. Additionally, a smile can even help lower heart rate and reduce stress levels.

 

How a Smile can help us live a joyful life

Happiness is an emotion, but it doesn’t always arise automati­cally. Sometimes, we must make an effort to seek it out. In doing so, smiling becomes one of the sim­plest and most accessible ways to maintain a sense of joy in our daily lives.

 

Some fundamental principles underpin happiness. These in­clude self-confidence, self-worth, the capacity to love, and even the ability to forgive those who op­pose us. When combined with a genuine smile, these values play an essential role in building healthy relationships, improving mental well-being, and achiev­ing success in life. Generally, happiness is defined as a state of emotional satisfaction. Efforts to ease social tensions and reduce feelings of loneliness are also key factors in achieving a happy and fulfilling life.

 

Smiles and External Relation­ships

In social settings, those who smile often are frequently perceived as trustworthy and approachable individuals. If you look at successful people featured in the media, you’ll often notice a bright, consistent smile on their faces. That smile helps strength­en their social relationships and serves as a valuable tool for com­munication and collaboration.

 

Someone is smiling warmly and kindly when meeting others not only reflects your attitude but also builds self-confidence. In the professional world, indi­viduals with strong social skills tend to receive more opportuni­ties. Therefore, a smile proves beneficial not just personally, but also in business, education, and organizational environments.

 

How a Smile Supports One­self

There are times when, look­ing at one’s own life, a person may feel discouraged or disheartened. Due to losses, dissatisfaction, or the many challenges that arise in daily life, one might feel like giv­ing up. Even in those moments, a simple smile can become a mes­sage of hope.

 

Research has shown that in mirror therapy, where individuals look at their reflection, smiling at oneself can help reduce psycho­logical stress. Loving oneself and accepting one’s life can gradually be restored, and the starting point for that healing often begins with a single smile.

 

Raising a smiling habit

Smiling can be difficult to do in unwanted situations or to main­tain as a habit. However, gradu­ally making a conscious effort to smile even during challenging emotional times can help create a better mental state. Along with the points mentioned above, this can help shift the energy moving within you in a different direction. It supports becoming a person filled with love, compassion, mo­tivation, and fulfilment.

 

Even during difficult and tir­ing times, if one can carry a smile, it can bring comfort to everyone around them and fill the entire en­vironment with feelings of peace and happiness. By setting aside one’s pain and suffering to bring joy to others, that happiness will reflect from those people, allow­ing oneself to experience at least a small measure of calm and joy. This is the principle of kindness’s reciprocal nature.

 

Victims of unhappiness

The surveys of the World Health Organization stated that more than 300 million of the global population, accounting for 4.4 per cent, are suffering from depres­sion in their lives, adding that a large portion of the population is also lacking happiness based to unknown diseases. As different tensions impact society, the ma­jority of people cannot emphasize happiness and pleasure while struggling for the daily needs of their lives.

 

The Lord Buddha preached the Four Noble Truths. They are the first Truth of Suffering (Duk­kha) that life inherently involves suffering and dissatisfaction; the second Truth of the Origin of Suf­fering (Samudaya) that Suffering arises from craving, attachment, and ignorance; the third Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha) that Suffering can be overcome and ended; and the fourth Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering (Magga) that the Noble Eightfold Path provides the way to end suffering.

 

Hence, nobody can avoid the impacts of suffering and dissatis­faction. They are facing different social crises such as a higher rate of unemployment, lower income, rising expenses and increasing commodity prices. So, the ma­jority of people are experiencing something special about depres­sion. It shows basic factors to dis­appear happiness and pleasure in their minds. Consequently, they do not believe in their future as­pirations, and they cannot endure these sufferings.

 

Research on happiness

Various organizations in global countries released surveys and indices over findings from research on the happiness of peo­ple. The happiness of people can be measured by gross domestic product, healthy lifespan, contri­bution of society for individuals, rights of independent choosing, generosity, and perspectives on corruption. Especially, people from developed countries are embracing happiness due to their lifestyle, which is better than oth­er countries.

 

Criteria

Life is short. Instead of feel­ing upset and running away dur­ing that brief time, we should face it with joy. A smile is a gift for your life – something you can use throughout your entire lifetime.

Therefore, dear friends, I en­courage you not to forget to smile on your face when you wake up in the morning and to smile when you meet others. A single smile can make not only yourself but also someone else’s entire day extraordinary. A single smile can open a person’s heart. If you truly want to be someone who smiles genuinely, let’s start by sharing words of love and kindness in life.

 

Smiles based on happiness

The happy life of individu­als does not depend on the life possessing money, wealth, edu­cational degrees, taking pride in their lives, and faithful associates. Only when individuals are happy will they bring smiles for a long time due to enjoying the safety of life. Actually, can they be happy and satisfied only if they have sufficient food, clothing and ac­commodation? Both physical and mental well-being can shape the happy life of people. If so, they can sustain their satisfactory smiles throughout their lives.