Tag Archives: smiling

Smiling Is Contagious So Spread It Around!

8 Jun

The other day I was walking along, smiling to myself.  Now, there are some people who might think that I’m a total Susie Sunshine, and that this is a regular occurrence – me, grinning away, skipping through the streets.  But I can assure you, it doesn’t happen all the time.  Sometimes, I am walking along, grimacing or scowling to myself.  One might find me in this state, say, on a packed subway during rush hour commute.

But the other day, I was not on a rush hour-packed subway, and I was feeling particularly optimistic about the state of well, things, and contented, and I was smiling away, sort of unaware about it all.  When I passed a business-y woman who smiled back at me.  That’s when I realized what I was doing, so I made eye contact with the next person I passed, who happened to have been a serious-looking sort of fellow, and I deliberately aimed my smile in his direction and zapped him with it and…he smiled back!  I smiled even wider, giddy at how contagious the whole thing was, and the next person I passed smiled back at me, too!

I’ve noticed this in the past but quickly then forgotten it.  It is so simple it’s ridiculous, yet incredibly, magically, so powerful.  Smiling is contagious.  Even in this isolated, isolating, disconnected city of New York, where everyone seems to be wrapped up in their own worlds and ever-rushing to their next destinations, it is possible to share a moment of connection with each other, when you just take a milli-second out to s-m-i-l-e.  And then you get the benefit of being zapped back by someone else’s smile, and energized by it.

This shit really works.  For sure.  Try it.  Maybe today.  And for those Advanced Placement students, perhaps you can give it a go during rush hour commute…