I have been adjusting my daily routine now to include a mandatory smile first thing when I wake up. I always try to say a prayer to the universe and stretch my bad back after I open my eyes. But now I have added smiling upon awakening:-)
Andrew Carnegie said it in “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Salespeople have known that a smile helps build rapport since time immemorial. Children smile just for fun and very easily. And, most people know that it is a nice thing to do. So pass it on. It is in fact contagious.
Mirror neurons in our brains are programmed to respond to a smile. We see someone smile and we usually smile back. Smiling is also a trigger to release dopamine and serotonin both good things in our brains, for our body and our emotions.
Even forcing a smile as Carnegie said creates the same feeling in our brains. So add a morning smile to YOUR daily routine! Fake it til you make it as they say. Try it out and see how it changes your entire perspective on the day.
“It costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give.
It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None are so rich they can get along without it and none so poor but are richer for its benefits.
It creates happiness in the home, fosters goodwill in a business, and is the countersign of friends. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad, and nature's best antidote for trouble.
Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anyone 'til it is given away.
And if in the hurly-burly bustle of today's business world, some of the people you meet should be too tired to give you a smile, may we ask you to leave one of yours?
For nobody needs a smile so much as those who have none left to give.” -Andrew Carnegie
