139 - Friday Fix: Fake a Smile to Have a Better Day

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2022

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s true that happy people smile. But it may also be true that people feel happy because they smile. Faking a smile might boost your mood, reduce your stress, and help you bounce back from challenges fast. But you may have also heard about the dangers of forcing a smile when you aren’t feeling it. After all, aren’t you repressing your emotions? There’s a difference between faking a smile for someone else’s benefit and giving yourself a smile to boost your mood. This episode will explain what research says about this. I also explain how a fake smile impacts your brain, when to try it, and what benefits you can expect. And if you aren’t able to force a smile sometimes because you’re just not feeling it, that’s OK too. This episode shares another strategy that works well for those days when you can’t seem to muster a fake smile. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:45.7	Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix.
0:52.8	Every Friday, I share a quick mental strength strategy that can help fix the thoughts, feelings, and actions that can pull you back in life.
0:54.5	Do you smile because you're happy? Or, are you happy because you smile? You might think, well, of course, happy people smile.
1:01.4	And that's true. But there's also evidence that smiling can make you feel happy. But if you're
1:07.0	one of those people who is likely to roll your eyes and decide that pasting on a big fake
1:11.4	smile actually makes you feel worse, stick with me. There's research that shows that even a half
1:16.6	smile can be effective in reducing stress, boosting your mood, and making you feel better in just a few
1:21.5	seconds. Studies have found people feel calmer when they smile during stressful situations,
1:27.0	and their mood improves when they're
1:28.5	feeling down. That's because smiling releases tiny molecules in your brain that help the neurons
1:33.9	reduce stress. A smile releases feel-good hormones like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. They lower
1:41.2	your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and help you relax.
1:45.0	This boosts your mood fast.
1:47.6	Fortunately, your smile doesn't even have to be genuine for you to appreciate the benefits.
1:52.5	Smiling, even when you don't feel like it, still triggers the same response.
1:56.7	So it works even when you're stressed out or you're in a bad mood.
2:00.5	There's research that shows smiling during stressful times and right afterward helps your mind and your body recover faster.
2:07.9	But constant force smiles might not always be a good idea.
2:11.7	One study found that people who felt like they had to keep smiling at work, like teachers, nurses, and food service workers
2:18.6	might be wearing themselves down all day. These individuals were actually at a higher risk of
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