Smile! It doesn't have to be a mind-boggling grin with gumption. The beginning of a grin will do quite nicely because it immediately begins to erase frown lines.
Face it – it is impossible to pout while having a face on the way to pleasant mode.
Think on it. Think of the people you know who have a perpetual scowl in place backed by angry eyes. Are they your favorite companion for the day? And sadly are they their own favorite companion for the day, for we do all have to live with ourselves.
So, yes, do a daily face check. Look into a mirror at those eyes looking back at you – are they angry? Then ask yourself what is the cause of that anger and is it worth the effort or a waste of that precious commodity called time?
Have you earned a PhD in anger? A professional in losing your temper? A candidate, at least for just a little while, to be called insane.
Are you a litterbug, trashing the community of which you are a part with the remnants of your anger?
So then – smile – with the tone in your voice and a body language that says: I think peace and bring peace and am at war with war.
Smile, because it is a facelift that costs you nothing and gives the world everything.
If you wear a smile often enough everyone will think you are good looking. The person who smiles as a constant habit has a beauty that can be found in no other way.
When I was in college 60-plus years ago and things were different, I would hitch a ride by the raising of my thumb and then sending forth a smile. My smile said I could be trusted, and time and time again it earned me a ride I might otherwise have never gotten.
I have learned that in many other experiences as well. Smiling at a an airline ticket agent, or my children when they were sad and needed my smile as well as an uplifting word -- such an action could earn me such gracious moments.
When a day is dark a smile makes the day a little brighter.
When someone is difficult a smile may make them less so.
When there is no hope, dare to attack it with a smile that may well be difficult to achieve; force yourself to do it anyway. There is an inner toughness behind doing this when the world would tell you it is impossible and a waste of time.
Dare to smile and dare to do so time and time again – of such magic moments are born smiles in the lives of those around us.