Absolutely NO Smiling Allowed

Like many people, I often get sucked down the rabbit hole of online news stories and various other articles and columns. Maybe you do, too. Like potato chips, once I start, one piece leads to another and I can’t stop. It’s really okay because I’m actually feeding my brain. At least that’s what I tell myself.

Two related categories are definitely not brain food. The first is Baby Boomers criticizing Millennials for being clueless; the second is Millennials for criticizing Baby Boomers for being completely out of touch. While Millennials certainly aren’t clueless, I almost always side with the Boomers – because I AM one. And Millennials can be a bit over the top. I mean, come on – one Millennial critic disparaged Baby Boomers for liking toast. Really? Toast??

Criticizing Boomers for liking toast may be a head-scratcher, but here’s one that’s really off the charts – condemning Baby Boomers for smiling at strangers. (Oh no, the humanity!)

Only a lemon-sucking Grinch would have a problem with that. First of all, plain ol’ smiling is healthy. It can lower blood pressure, increase your pain threshold, lower stress, and even make you look younger. Research has shown that smiling is more effective than chocolate in stimulating the reward mechanism of the brain. (But don’t give up chocolate; this is Advent, not Lent!)

When you smile at a stranger, you just may be giving that person the jump-start he or she needs to make it through the day. Internist and author Alex Lickerman, MD, says smiling at strangers acknowledges their humanity and promotes peace by sowing joy.

Back in the early 2000s, I was a middle-aged grad student at the University of North Carolina. On top of the challenging academic program, I was also in the midst of a difficult personal patch. I had to develop positive strategies just to get through each day. One of those strategies was, yes, smiling at strangers as I walked around campus. Those smiles created little circles of joy whenever a someone smiled back.

I always suspected those circles had a ripple effect. An unnamed blogger, a young woman, seemed to confirm that. She started the same practice but turned it into a research project. Her findings? Almost all older men and women smiled back and even said hello or nodded in greeting; younger men nodded and smiled back, too. Only half the younger women smiled back, likely affirming the observation of the famous author Anonymous – ‘Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you’re up to.”

Even in the best of circumstances, the Christmas season can be stressful. Smiling is a way to immediately ease that stress. And, unlike chocolate, NO calories!

Have a merry and blessed Christmas!

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