Did you know that the habit of smiling can make you happier in life?  Well it can!  Here is an excerpt from an article that was published back in 2009 that proves it! (I’m not sure who wrote it but it’s awesome!):

“A recent study found that a habit of genuine smiling may contribute to happiness and better adjustment in life.

Researchers in the study looked through 141 photos in a Mills College (Oakland, Calif.) yearbook and separated out genuine smilers from inauthentic ones. The smilers were contacted at age 27, 43 and 52 and asked about the status of their marriage and life satisfaction.

The women with the genuine smiles were more likely to be married and stay married. They were also more likely to experience greater sense of personal well-being. These results were found to be consistent in a 30-year follow up (“A Genuine Smile Goes a ‘Long Way,'” Vijai P. Sharma, www.mindpub.com).

For many years the conventional wisdom has been that people are happy because they are successful. But additional researchers, who analyzed 225 studies involving 275,000 people, found the truth might be just the opposite — that people are successful because they are happy.

Happy people are easier to work with, more highly motivated and more willing to tackle difficult projects. Thus they are more likely to be successful, found a 2005 study published by the American Psychological Association (“Smile For Success,” Dec. 21, 2005, ABC News).

And a 2008 study shows that people who don’t smile have a negative impact on their friends, and even people they don’t know.

Each happy friend a person has boosts their chances of happiness by 9 percent. Having grumpy friends decreases it by about 7 percent, found researchers in a paper published last December in a British medical journal (“Smile! Study says being happy can be contagious,” Deseret News, Dec. 5, 2008).

It might also be interesting to note that the researchers found that money cannot buy happiness. According to the research, extra money increased a person’s odds of being happy only marginally — notably less than the odds of being happier if you have a happy friend.”

See, it’s true – if you walk around with a smile on your face you are going to have happier life – AND you’ll be more successful! So SMILE!

~Amy Rees Anderson    (read Amy’s new book “What AWESOME Looks Like: How To Excel In Business & Life” )