Smile boosts self-esteem, lifts mood and improves productivity

Smiling and laughing does more than just “good blood,” it allows you to improve your daily life and achieve more at work and in interpersonal relationships. International scientific studies show that a smile is the elixir for living long and working happily. To celebrate its benefits, October 5 marks World Smile Day.

According to master coach Marina Osnaghi: “A smile is an open door to relationship and well-being”.

Smile improves life

He is not a psychologist, but probably Vasco Rossi with his famous philosophical phrase “Living… Like Laughing!“ had got it right back in 1993: team of scholars have indeed shown that just laughing is enough to improve quality of life, productivity at work, trigger healthy social relationships and even lose weight.

In history, however, the first person to grasp its importance was Hippocrates, The father of medicine, who stated in his treatises that “From one smile always comes another smile“. Also Susumo Tonegawa, Nobel Prize winner for Medicine in 1987, he stated “Those who are sad and depressed are unable to keep disease at bay“. According to studies reported by the Los Angeles Times conducted by the scientist Lee Berk, laugh Develops the “gamma” frequency in the brain, that produces waves that can concretely synchronize neuronal activity and sustain memory.

Laughing for at least 15 minutes in company increases pain threshold by 10%

The Washington Post Instead, he writes about a study fromOxford University, from which it emerges that Laughing for at least 15 minutes in company increases the pain threshold by 10 percent. Even the highly influential Time reported the study of the Western Kentucky University, claiming that a smile increases the number of “killer cells,” which defend the immune system.

But that’s not all: laughing allows you to maintain physical fitness and stimulate circulation. According to the study reported by Fox News led by Maciej Buchowski, professor at the Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Laughing for 10 to 15 minutes allows you to burn about 50 calories. Researchers at theUniversity of Maryland also revealed that the blood vessels of those who watch a comedy show are more resilient and efficient than those who have not seen it.

Smile represents an open door to relationship and well-being

This is the finding of a study conducted by Espresso Communication on over 50 international publications At the World Smile Day, day that has been celebrated every year since 1999 on the first Friday in October. The initiative was by U.S. artist Harvey Ball, he who in 1963 created the famous and unmistakable design of the smile world-famous yellow.

“Smile represents an open door to relationship and well-being. If it arises spontaneously, it facilitates the inner readiness of the person who smiles and that of the interlocutor who receives it. If it is about politeness and formalism, it cannot have the same effect – explains Marina Osnaghi, first Master Certified Coach in Italy, which often uses smiling in its courses dedicated to leaders to enhance resilience skills and speed of resolution of critical stress thresholds – Our bodies and brains receive the energy transmitted through a genuine or intentional smile.

Smiling promotes feelings of well-being

Switching then from smiling to laughing allows physical relaxation that dissipates clouds and allows one to start using the neo cortex again to ponder solutions and get out of the emotional reaction brought about by the stress of the situation.

Spontaneous smiling arises most easily if one enhances one’s ability to organize one’s professional and private life, coming to feel good, experiencing situations in which one can operate sustainable control over things, achieving a successful result. The greater the awareness of one’s abilities With the achievement of positive results, the more you tend to smile. So all the work done through refining goals and method of work naturally helps bring forth smiles to offer to oneself and the world“.

Where good humor reigns, productivity increases

A thesis also demonstrated by scholars from the St. Edwards University of Austin, Texas, who conducted a study of 2,500 employees and found that 81% say they are more productive if placed in a work context where good humor reigns. A study in the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, reported by Huffington Post, revealed that laughing Dramatically reduces stress hormones: cortisol by 39%, epinephrine by 70% and dopamine by 38%.

Similarly, a survey by the Loma Linda University, in California, reported by Nature, highlighted how, at the sight of a comedy video, beta-endorphins, which relieve depression, increase by 27 percent. Not only scientists, but also actors and comedians understood already in the past decades the power of a smile: Audrey Hepburn, In a famous interview revealed “I love people who make me laugh. Laughing cures a multitude of diseases“.

Even the famous Aldo Fabrizi spoke out on the subject, stating that “Rice is a blessing from God: it’s good for you, it’s physical exercise“.

19 types of smiles, some not pleasant

However, there are also laughter that is less than pleasant and even harmful to health. In a film made for the BBC by the science journalist Zaria Gorvett emerge well 19 types of smiles, of which, however, scholars identified only 6 that undoubtedly indicate a state of happiness: the other 13 types include smiles that emphasize pain, embarrassment or even discomfort.

In fact, a smile could also convey contempt, anger, disbelief, or that we are lying. And that’s not all: Scott Weems, neuroscientist and author of the book “Ah! The Science of When We Laugh and Why” he confirmed in the columns of the Wall Street Journal the benefits of smiling, revealing, however, that smiles provoked by a different form of laughter, such as that born of sarcasm and sardonic jokes, can harm health: As research conducted by the University of Western Ontario, those who possess this type of humor register high levels of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

Smiling, however, is also a matter of social relevance

From a study by Professor Robert R. Tryouts, neuro-scientist and professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, posted on Psychology Today, it was found that the benefits of smiling also infect those around, in the workplace as well as at home: is 30 times more likely to start laughing in the company of other people than when alone. Indeed, there is a strong connection between smiles and people’s ability to socialize, which can concretely influence the overall mood.