Smile and get rich! And get a lot of other things too…

You think I'm kidding, right? But one of the findings of research carried out at the University of Manchester in England was that bosses are 12% more likely to promote employees who smile a lot. So smiling can advance your career! Well, that made you smile, and smiling more is good for other things than your bank balance.

Smiles and frowns

For example, it can make you holier. Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh was asked what is the best way to set out on the spiritual path. His reply? "To start with, draw your lips into a faint, scarcely perceptible smile." Now, if you actually attempt to follow that instruction, you are quite likely to discover that you are frowning. So many of us have a fixed frown on our faces (I can't think why…). Smiling more will break up those frowns.

Smile research uncovers some counterintuitive phenomena

I don't know if Thich Nhat Hanh is familiar with the research work of social psychologist Rober Zajonc. Zajonc holds no brief for the effect of smiling on your spiritual progress, of course, but he did conduct some fascinating studies which demonstrated that consciously forming your facial muscles into a smile and holding it for a brief period measurably changes the blood flow in your brain. A 30-second smile can reliably lift your mood.

This seems contradictory at first. Surely it's the other way round? If you feel good, won't you smile more? But no. If you smile more, you will feel good.

How to (re)acquire the smile habit in your armchair

So what are you waiting for? If those frowns have been getting you down, how about putting on some smiles instead? If you've really not had a lot to smile about in life for a while, you'll be amazed at the effect some smile work will have.

Smile more is an audio hypnosis session which will effortlessly (and very enjoyably) enable you to kick the frowning habit and unleash your smile. You'll learn more about the power of smiling in your life as you relax (with a smile on your lips).

The deep relaxation that Smile more will take you into will itself make you feel so much better in yourself and will allow your unconscious mind to reawaken your instinctive awareness of the value of smiling. You'll find yourself fondly recalling things that made you smile in the past - and smiling all over again.

Smile more will soon make the habit of smiling feel like it's always been a fundamental part of you. Which it has.

Download Smile more and get richer, holier and happier.

Note
Zajonc, R.B. "Emotion and Facial Efference: An Ignored Theory Reclaimed", Science 228 (April 5, 1985): 15-21
Zajonc, R. B., S. T. Murphy, & M. Inglehart, "Feeling and Facial Efference: Implications of the Vascular Theory of Emotion" Psychological Review 96 (1989): 395-416."

P.S. When you reach enlightenment, please send us a testimonial!