The world is filled with people who are looking for ways to live happier, healthier, and more meaningful lives. It is a goal that many people share and many of them are on the right track. Fortunately, for us, good, wholesome habits are just as easy to create and maintain as habits that are bad for us, like smoking or excessive drinking. However, there is one habit that even the best of us tend to overlook. It is a habit that can do wonders for your health, outlook on life, and relationships with our fellow man or woman. It is as easy as curling your lips upward. It is the healthy habit of smiling.

Find Happiness Below

For those of you who just rolled your eyes and considered clicking away from this article, stop for a moment and smile. It is a medical fact that the act of smiling can add years to your life. Smiling is the world\’s biggest health secret because it is so easy to do and there are no immediately apparent benefits. However, it has these medically proven benefits.

– Smiling can add years to our lives
– Smiling can add to the quality of our lives
– Smiling can affect other people as well as ourselves
– Smiling generates happiness.

Add Years To Your Life

Smiling literally affects the immune system. When we smile for more than a few seconds, it triggers a chemical release in our brain in the form of serotonin. Serotonin is known in medical circles as the happy neurotransmitter. It is a protein component of amino acid tryptophan that we get when we eat a healthy diet and when released in significant amounts into the bloodstream, affects our mood. We sleep better and feel better overall. The amazing thing is that all we have to do smile to trigger this release.

Quality of Life

Those molecules in our systems that are misshapen are soaked in serotonin. This can actually turn depression into feelings of well being and comfort. Many doctors will prescribe drugs that help the body to release serotonin the counteract depression. People who experience depression benefit by experiencing more feelings of well-being and even happiness. This is a definite improvement in the otherwise sullen depression that had an adverse effect on their well-being.

Affecting Other People

When we smile, we affect those around us as well. The average person that you pass on the street will instinctively smile if you smile at them first. It is akin to a reflex action, like flinching when we think we are about to be injured, a smile will appear if they believe you smiled at them. When you smile at someone and he or she smiles back, it improves their mood without them actually realizing what has happened. When we see someone that we know, even if it is just vaguely, if we smile enthusiastically and act as if we are genuinely happy to see them, this short five-minute conversation has dumped serotonin in your bloodstreams making you both feel better.

Generate Happiness

Happiness, or the act of being happy, can be brought on with an encounter like the one mentioned above. After all is said and done, happiness is simply a chemical reaction to a bloodstream filled with serotonin. Try smiling and acting happy for one day, even if you are not in a particularly happy mood in the morning, and you will find that you can not only achieve a happiness that you want all the time, the people you meet and converse with will also feel this happiness. Smile, and spread a little serotonin around.

Author Bio: For more information please visit our CPR & First Aid Training website.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: Happiness,bloodstreams,Quality of Life,Smiling,health secret ,Health Ingredient