How Smiling Can Help Your Anxiety and Health
How often do you smile? It’s a question you possibly don’t think about too much, but it is one you should bring to the forefront of your mind. There is a lot of science behind smiling, where there are benefits to our health and anxiety that smiling often can provide.
Have you wondered about the science behind smiling before? Have you thought about if it can make us feel happier? Then read on.
Some people are naturally more smiley than others, and that’s OK. Let’s take a read of the information below to explore how smiling can have a positive impact on your anxiety and health:
Table of Contents
What is the science of smiling?
Research has shown over the years that smiling can trick your brain into providing feelings of happiness – whether your smile is genuine or not. By acting smiling, it can trigger us to think about positive times and good memories, instantly improving our moods.
The more you smile, the more happy hormones- endorphins – are released. This can, in turn, make us feel happier instantly as our brain’s emotional trail starts to play.
On another note, research has been carried out to show that those who tend to smile more often are portrayed as more likable and friendly people. Plus – smiling can be contagious! So surround yourself with those smiley people.
What if I am self-conscious about my smile?
Many people can feel like this for different reasons. For some, it might be a misaligned or protruding tooth that can bring on self-confidence issues. Gappy smiles and missing teeth can also do the same.
Luckily, many treatments are available now for adults who can improve the look of their teeth, making it easier to bring back a confident smile. If you have missing teeth due to oral health issues, or even an accident, there are dentures and even more advanced alternatives to dentures available, like All on 4 dental implants. This one, in particular, is a conventional way of replacing the root of a missing tooth, in which the cost of all on 4 is reasonable.
How smiling reduces anxiety and stress
Studies have been carried out by people who have had to deal with worrying situations while smiling through them. The results showed that those who smiled through the stressful tasks had much lower heart rates than those not smiling.
Another factor linked to stress and anxiety is the speed of your heart rate. Therefore it’s key to do whatever you can to lower your heart rate. It’s also been proven that the more you smile, the more you release endorphins. When these hormones are released, feelings of positivity, calmness, and happiness are more prominent within us.
Smiling can boost productivity.
Who knew smiling could help you to become more productive? Studies have been carried out which show that when you are feeling happier, it has a huge impact on productivity levels in the workplace. As we experience more happy emotions through smiling, this increases productivity due to growing a better mindset.
However, the same can be said for doing the opposite of smiling. Frowning, feeling negative, and filling our minds with sad thoughts can make us feel drained and less productive.
You know what to do: keep on smiling!