that the smile reflex can work the other way round?
Smiling is associated (at least in Western culture)
with very positive emotions, as we all know. We smile because of happiness,
relief, amusement, pleasant surprise etc., but the causality is not a
one-way street. Logically you know that all these things that seem to beset
you at the moment are all manageable, and unlikely to be fatal even if you
don't get them all done. Emotionally, they can get disproportionate in any
direction. It's the emotionality which causes the stress, not the situation.
If you imagine the sort of smile you have on your face when you are, for
example, calm, contented, curled up in the warm with a nice glass of red,
after an afternoon skiing followed by a good meal with friends, knowing that
tomorrow you don't have a single thing to do, then take that particular smile and put it on your
face, the feeling will follow very shortly afterwards.
If you are sceptical of this, think for a moment which has the more power
over your physiology your emotions, or your conscious thoughts? Can you stop
yourself blushing by thinking about it? The link between emotion and
physiology is very powerful, and I am convinced that when people cheer
themselves up by thinking happy thoughts, it is the smile that goes with the
thoughts that makes the visceral difference, rather than the thoughts
themselves.
:@ )
©2005 Mark Shepherd