Deccan Chronicle, You may have dropped the perfect lines, flaunted the most impressive resume and prepared to forgive a friend. Yet the one thing that clinches the deal every single time is a genuine smile. No, not the socialite one that precedes the air-kiss or the menacing one like Joker’s (in The Dark Knight). For a moment, drop the façade and let the lips give you an emotional facelift. The X-Factor tells you how flashing your pearly whites, is a good way to winning hearts and keeping you healthy too. Benefits: (1) Mood: The next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. Even if you don’t want to grin, repeatedly doing so eventually makes you believe, there’s actually a reason to smile. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood. (2) Health: When you smile, immune function improves possibly because you are more relaxed. This helps prevent flu and the common cold. When you smile, there is a measurable reduction in your blood pressure. Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins,
natural painkillers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed.(3) Confidence: We don’t need an expert to validate this, though we do need to be reminded from time to time — we are always drawn to people who smile. Job seekers give the air of confidence when they project the right smile while date hunters often fall hook, line and sinker for a prospective partner, just because of a smile. It’s also infectious. You smile at someone and they are mostly like going to smile right back.Youth recall: The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Try smiling your way through the day — you’ll look younger and feel better. (1) Eyes: Resistance exercises can reduce crow’s feet, the lines near the outer corner of the eyes. When the skin around the eyes is more toned and firm, existing lines become less prominent and the skin is less prone to developing new lines. Try smiling into a mirror, placing your index fingers near the outer corner of your eyes, and pressing gently upward, to lift the cheek. Hold for six seconds, then release. (2) Mouth: Pucker up and smile to tone the area around the lips and lower cheeks, recommends FatFreeKitchen.com. By reducing smile lines around the mouth, you may be more inclined to share your pearly whites. Purse the lips as dramatically as possible, pulling in the cheeks, then try to smile. Hold the
pose until you feel a mild ache in the muscle region around the mouth. To prevent muscle strain, do this exercise just once daily. (3) Cheeks: Tone your cheek muscles while acting silly to stay motivated to maintain the workout, suggests Womens-Health-and-Fitness.com. Grin a huge smile while keeping your lips closed, making sure the edges of your mouth turn upwards. Try to touch your ears with the corners of your mouth. Wrinkle your nose to feel your cheek muscles engage. Hold for five seconds, then let your face relax. Repeat the exercise 10 times. How to identify: There is no doubt that the world is turning into a scarier place with rapists, murderers and maniacs galore, so it’s possibly understandable why people are reluctant to take a smile at face value. On the other hand you have fashionistas and socialites giving a smile a bad name with their fake ones. Yet, a genuine grin is a connection that can be made instantly…one which you will recognise instantly too. (1) The Duchenne Smile: French physician Guillaume Duchenne paid particular attention to an anatomical distinction of the smile. While conducting research on the physiology of facial expressions in the mid-19th century, Duchenne identified two distinct types of smiles. A Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which raises the cheeks and forms crow’s feet around the eyes). Duchenne smiles are known as authentic smiles because they consistently co-occur with positive emotions. Duchenne smiles are marked by wrinkles in the eyes that resemble crows feet and are associated with feeling excitement, amusement, interest, happiness and joy. (2) The Pan-Am smile : The Pan-Am smile, also known as the “Botox smile”, is the name given to a “fake smile”, in which only the zygomatic major muscle is voluntarily contracted to show politeness. It is named after the airline Pan American World Airways, whose flight attendants would always flash every jet-setter the same, perfunctory smile. A non-Duchenne smile involves only the zygomatic major muscle. Supreme quote: As long as you smile, have sparkly eyes and stick your shoulders back, nobody's going to notice your bum or your waist or your feet, for that matter –– Cat Deeley. Image Flickr Link1, Link2, Link3, Source: Deccan Chronicle
natural painkillers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed.(3) Confidence: We don’t need an expert to validate this, though we do need to be reminded from time to time — we are always drawn to people who smile. Job seekers give the air of confidence when they project the right smile while date hunters often fall hook, line and sinker for a prospective partner, just because of a smile. It’s also infectious. You smile at someone and they are mostly like going to smile right back.Youth recall: The muscles we use to smile lift the face, making a person appear younger. Try smiling your way through the day — you’ll look younger and feel better. (1) Eyes: Resistance exercises can reduce crow’s feet, the lines near the outer corner of the eyes. When the skin around the eyes is more toned and firm, existing lines become less prominent and the skin is less prone to developing new lines. Try smiling into a mirror, placing your index fingers near the outer corner of your eyes, and pressing gently upward, to lift the cheek. Hold for six seconds, then release. (2) Mouth: Pucker up and smile to tone the area around the lips and lower cheeks, recommends FatFreeKitchen.com. By reducing smile lines around the mouth, you may be more inclined to share your pearly whites. Purse the lips as dramatically as possible, pulling in the cheeks, then try to smile. Hold the
pose until you feel a mild ache in the muscle region around the mouth. To prevent muscle strain, do this exercise just once daily. (3) Cheeks: Tone your cheek muscles while acting silly to stay motivated to maintain the workout, suggests Womens-Health-and-Fitness.com. Grin a huge smile while keeping your lips closed, making sure the edges of your mouth turn upwards. Try to touch your ears with the corners of your mouth. Wrinkle your nose to feel your cheek muscles engage. Hold for five seconds, then let your face relax. Repeat the exercise 10 times. How to identify: There is no doubt that the world is turning into a scarier place with rapists, murderers and maniacs galore, so it’s possibly understandable why people are reluctant to take a smile at face value. On the other hand you have fashionistas and socialites giving a smile a bad name with their fake ones. Yet, a genuine grin is a connection that can be made instantly…one which you will recognise instantly too. (1) The Duchenne Smile: French physician Guillaume Duchenne paid particular attention to an anatomical distinction of the smile. While conducting research on the physiology of facial expressions in the mid-19th century, Duchenne identified two distinct types of smiles. A Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which raises the cheeks and forms crow’s feet around the eyes). Duchenne smiles are known as authentic smiles because they consistently co-occur with positive emotions. Duchenne smiles are marked by wrinkles in the eyes that resemble crows feet and are associated with feeling excitement, amusement, interest, happiness and joy. (2) The Pan-Am smile : The Pan-Am smile, also known as the “Botox smile”, is the name given to a “fake smile”, in which only the zygomatic major muscle is voluntarily contracted to show politeness. It is named after the airline Pan American World Airways, whose flight attendants would always flash every jet-setter the same, perfunctory smile. A non-Duchenne smile involves only the zygomatic major muscle. Supreme quote: As long as you smile, have sparkly eyes and stick your shoulders back, nobody's going to notice your bum or your waist or your feet, for that matter –– Cat Deeley. Image Flickr Link1, Link2, Link3, Source: Deccan Chronicle
