The days, weeks and months float by and before you know it, we have passed the middle of yet another year. This second week of August commences National Smile Week, beckoning us to smile a while and embrace our facial muscles.
As our lives unfold, each day brings new adventures and interesting twists and turns that continually pave the road ahead. Sometimes we find the story completely breathtaking and invigorating. Sometimes we wish we could skip through chapters or perhaps rip some pages from the books of our lives completely. However, that’s not usually a possibility. Instead we learn to navigate our ships on uncharted waters and enjoy the calm when it finds us. We work to let our emotions come and go without judging them and through the ups and downs; we find ourselves having to remember to keep smiling. Celebrate life.
Smiling is one of the simplest expressions of joy or pleasantry and a clear sign of contentment, excitement and happiness. As babies in the growing tummies of mothers, we smiled without any real reason. Our “reflex smiles” were sort of a way to test our equipment. As we come into this world, we learn it to be a way to connect with people around us and as our eyes became focused, we started to acknowledge faces, voices, music and whatever else brought joy to us, and our facial muscles would respond in kind.
There is a direct connection between our brain and our smile. Our brain tells us something is joyous and worth a smile and our smile tells our brains that we are feeling good. Scientist, Andrew Newberg says that a smile is “the symbol that was rated with the highest positive emotional content”. The movie “The Secret” says that if we smile for one minute nonstop, it is the fastest and surest way to lift our frequency and vibrate at a higher level. And, although it has been up for debate, it is said that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
As we traverse through life’s journey, we will always come across several events and happenings in the day to day that will make our facial muscles contract or expand in varying ways. The quest of life is to understand that we are joy. We are naturally in a state of joy and the more we acknowledge that and look around this world through the wondrous eyes of gratitude, the more we will find ourselves smiling.
To cultivate a life where we are always in a state of joy is one of the richest states we can achieve. This would mean being around the right people, hearing the right music, doing what we love, looking up at the sunshine, touching the clouds with your mind’s eye and smiling incessantly. We bring joy to our lives by indulging in self care that uplifts our spirits and nurtures our bodies. While joy can be ignited by some of the simplest practices we can integrate into our lives on a daily basis, sometimes joy means treating ourselves in ways that bring us relaxation and rejuvenation.
Serve The Goddess was founded on this notion and for over 15 years, we have brought smiles to many lives – enhancing the connection of friends and family as well as facial muscles and brains.
As the second week of August rolls in, Serve The Goddess invites you to take a few moments to smile each day, several times a day. Make it a part of your routine and connect with your natural state of joy. As we embrace the national week of smiling this year, Serve The Goddess is confident that smiling is one of the many benefits of our services. Visit www.servethegoddess.com to try one of our many spa services and embrace National Smile Week with us.