You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile

I have always loved musicals. I grew up watching The Sound of Music, Grease, Meet Me in St. Louis, The King and I, The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Annie, and many more. I enjoyed them all, I still do. But my favorite was always Annie. 

In Annie there is a scene where the orphan girls are listening to the radio, a song comes on and they all begin singing. The song is You're Never Fully Dressed without a Smile. 

The song talks about how it doesn't matter who you are or how you dress, in fact we are told that the only thing that matters is if you have a smile on your face. This was true when Annie first made an appearance and it is still true today.

Incase you were wondering the history of Annie (I found it fascinating), I did some deep diving for us all. Annie first started as a poem in 1885, then began a comic strip in 1924, a radio play in the 1930's, it was first a film in 1932, and finally hit Broadway as a musical in 1977.

I did the research on Annie because I wanted to see when we first have the little girls sing along telling us to always wear a smile. 

You may wonder why or how this applies to school, mindfulness, and you. We are getting there, I promise.

November 13th's Daily Jay on the Calm app was simply titled Smile. Jay talked about bring a smile to a moment and genuinely feeling the smile. Jay shared wisdom regarding the benefits of a smile. As his daily mindfulness often does, Jay had me thinking and researching.

Smiling is not a learned behavior. It is biological and can be seen on babies in the womb.   

Smiling is a form of communication and can mean different things at different times. Not every smile is of happiness. Some smiles could be a related to; embarrassment, anger, fear, or even forced. Psychologist believe that their about 15 different types of smiles.

The French anatomist Duchenne discovered that a smile which includes the eyes is the product of a genuine positive emotion. They call this smile the Ducheene Smile. So the next time you observed someone's whole face to be smiling, mouth and eyes, remember that it is a smile of pure happiness.

Why should we care so much about smiling? There may be times where you just do not feel like smiling. That's understandable. However, there are times where bringing a smile to a situation can benefit you and others.

Studies are finding that smiling makes you feel better. A smile can help increase your mood enhancing hormones and decrease stress hormones. 

As we increase the positive hormones we can see a drop in blood pressure, a lower rate of illness and infection, lower rates of cancer, and a decreased rate of early death.

Smiling can help you live longer.

Smiling is linked to optimism. The more you smile the better life becomes.

Below is a quick smiling affirmation. It could be a quick mindfulness for yourself or your students.

Here is another thought on smiling.

One last link. A mindfulness that walks you through using the word SMILE. Try it today and see if you smile during and/or after.

Remember to try on a smile today. Afterall, you're never fully dressed without a smile.