S<--MILE-->S

Can you imagine a world without a smile? It is like life without the soul. A few weeks ago, the thought for the day in one of our toastmaster’s sessions was “If you see someone without a smile, give him one of yours. Smile is the only precious possession that can be easily given to others. We started with nothing in this world and stop with nothing. The mile between the start and the stop is all we have to smile. We want only our smiles to be preserved in this world. That’s why the cry “cheese” before shooting a picture, so that the photographs have only smiles all over.

 

Smile is the best win-all gesture to your audience. The best aide at the time of meeting new people is a smile. Smile begets smile. The spontaneous response to a smile is a smile. Smile brings the inner beauty to the fore. That’s why we find some people very attractive for their smile, even if they are not very good looking. We can actually feel our mind expand when we smile and contract when we frown. Smile acts as an anti-agent to stress. A smiley face never gets stressed out. We can keep out negative feelings like anger and jealousy, by just choosing to smile. A smile need not always be shown on the lips. Even the mind is capable of smiling.

 

Often, we find that the smile is misused to ease the inconvenience that is otherwise being induced by the person. We find politicians, particularly in developing countries like India, going to the voters with a smile, even if they did not show their face to them for the 5 years they stayed in the public office. The good news is that smile still works even if it is misused. But ideally, a smile should be genuine – with the sole intent of making oneself and others happy and pleasant. Only such smiles get the best return. An overconfident smile makes one look arrogant and a purposeless smile makes one look crazy. A genuine smile can be easily distinguished from an Amway smile or a contrived grin.

 

Smile, like other gestures, should best be a reflex. For it to become a reflex, it needs to be practiced. Practice getting easier, light-hearted thoughts in the mind, and the smile automatically appears, first in the mind and if required on the lips. The more we practice this, the more it gets built into our system and appears as a reflex. As we practice this, we will also notice that life gets easier and happier as well. Our surroundings look brighter and our neighbors start looking like our best friends once again. That’s the kind of difference it makes when the lips are stretched about half-an-inch!!

 

I am pretty sure that some of you must be thinking that these things are easier said than done. True, life is not easy. Day-to-day activities put a lot of demand on the mind and pull it down with very heavy thoughts. We often find that the day just cannot progress without such thoughts. The solution I found for this problem is to prioritize and choose. For instance, decide to smile to yours kids instead of thinking of winning an argument with your neighbor. Choose to read a comic instead of thinking on how to outwit colleagues at work. Engage in a social activity over the weekend, instead of earning that extra buck by teaching at the school.

True, not doing some of these things will cost us something. But we should be ready to pay that price for better life in the long run. That is the kind of trade-off that we need to do, to get back that child-like smile and look back on our face. We should do only as much as can keep us and others happy. It is not worth doing that extra bit by cutting into our happiness and our ability to smile. Remember? The mile that’s between start and stop is to smile and not to accumulate. After all, we don’t take anything that we accumulate with us when we stop. Why waste the mile for something that is anyway not useful?

 

So, here’s my recommendation to all of you to smile and make me smile!!