The answer is that both are true.
When we are content or feel happy, we are more attuned to the good and beauty of our surroundings, and this state is reflected in our face by our smile. The funny thing is that it also happens the other way around: the more we smile, even if it is forced at first, the happier we feel.
“Never forget to smile, for a day without a smile is a day lost.”
-Charles Chaplin
Smiling improves our mood
An experiment conducted by Fritz Strack showed that being smiling makes us more likely to be in a good mood. The experiment consisted of two groups of people being shown humorous strips.
In one group, people held a pencil with their teeth so that their lips were stretched into a smile, while in the other group the expression was neutral. The result showed that those who smiled beforehand found the strips funnier, i.e., they were more likely to be in a good mood.
This is explained by the fact that the brain, perceiving the muscles of our face in the form of a smile, interprets them as a signal that we are happy, regardless of the cause, and is attuned to positive moods.
As if this were not enough, the mind works “by tendencies”. When we are sad or angry, in general, we interpret what happens to us more negatively and tend to remember and think about negative events, while when we are happy, we take things more philosophically and find more positive memories and thoughts.
So “forcing” ourselves to smile can be a good way to induce our body to find states of greater happiness, which also feed back on each other. This is just one of the reasons why smiling is the first step to happiness, but there are more.
Smiles are contagious
We live in a stressful world in which we regularly come across many people, but we hardly notice them: the baker, the bus driver, the doctor, the cashier at the supermarket….
In these everyday situations, being friendly and flashing a smile can make a subtle but very important difference in the long run. An indifferent encounter becomes a pleasant one. Mirror neurons cause us to imitate the behavior of the person in front of us.
In the same way that when we encounter someone aggressive we automatically become defensive. If we go with a smile in front of us, chances are that, in many cases, we will find that we are returned with a smile and gestures of kindness, which enhances states of well-being and inner peace.
It is not in vain that one of the first things babies learn to do is to return the smile that their mothers or closest ones give them. We are programmed to interpret the smile as a sign of safety and to return it, generating a bond that communicates that “this is a safe environment, where you don’t have to be defensive”.
A small gesture, such as a smile, can have a decisive influence on the climate between people.
“If ever you don’t get the smile you expect, be generous and give your own. No one is in greater need of a smile than he who does not know how to smile at others.”
