A speaker speaking without a smile is an unrealized opportunity.

What is a smile?

A smile is the revitalization of the facial muscles, which shows a person’s good mood. It is a human emotion displayed on the face, in which up to fifty-three facial muscles participate.

First of all, smiling is a process that occurs in the brain. When a person smiles, certain processes are triggered in his brain. The left frontal lobe is activated, which is responsible for the emotions of happiness and joy. That is, when we smile, we feel joy and this joy is felt by the people around us, and when we rejoice, a smile appears. Its absence can become a serious barrier to communication. As a result, you need to learn to smile beautifully.

To learn to smile beautifully, first of all, you need to evaluate your own appearance.

In this video, Evgenia Bobrovskaya will show you what exercises you can use to achieve a beautiful smile:

There will be a feeling of happiness

Even a forced social smile (when you wouldn’t smile, but you should!) increases RIM Dunbar, R. Baron et al. Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold / Proceedings of the Royal Society B production of endorphin - the hormone of happiness. And its level is directly related to mood. The higher it is, the brighter and more joyful life seems.

A fake smile increases endorphin levels in the same way as a real one: the brain, giving a command to produce hormones, reacts to the behavior of the facial muscles, and not to emotions.

Appearance rating

1. Smile in front of the mirror;
2. Assess the condition of your teeth;
3. If the condition of your teeth is not satisfactory, try to limit your smile to your lips, without showing your teeth;
4. If the number of teeth is not enough, restore them. To straighten teeth, you can use braces;
5. Lips should not have peeling or cracks;
6. To make your lips look good, you need to watch your diet and drink a complex of vitamins.

Memory will improve

Researchers from Loma Linda University Medical Center (California, USA) conducted memory tests among people aged between 60 and 70 years. Elderly volunteers were asked to memorize the contents of several cards. Then the subjects were divided into two groups: the first was allowed to simply relax, and the second was shown funny videos.

After 20 minutes, older adults were asked to recall the contents of the cards. It turned out that those who watched the videos and smiled remembered GS Bains, LS Berk et al. The effect of humor on short-term memory in older adults: A new component for whole-person wellness / Advances in Mind-body Medicine on average twice as much information as their resting colleagues. This suggests that smiling can improve at least short-term memory.

Purpose of a smile

The main purpose of a smile is to express emotions. Its absence causes mistrust, since it is a means of non-verbal communication.

Basic functions of a smile:

• It inspires mutual trust;
• Smiling can convey information that cannot be conveyed in words;
• It is contagious, so you can direct the person to communicate positively with you.

When a person smiles, “fun” hormones are produced - serotonin and dopamine. He becomes more confident and calmer. A smile makes a person more resistant to stress, helps relax muscles and speeds up recovery, and if a person is sick, speeds up his recovery.

Smiling promotes the production of endorphins. Endorphins are substances that are responsible for feelings of happiness and euphoria. This substance allows you to normalize blood pressure and defeat depression.

Unlike people who frown, a person who smiles is more attractive. And people communicate with such a person, and stay away from gloomy people. Usually when you smile, your interlocutor smiles back at you. Smiling improves interaction between people, attracts positive people and increases self-confidence.

Reduces the load on the cardiovascular system

As research by TL Kraft, SD Pressman shows. Grin and bear it: The influence of manipulated facial expression on the stress response / Psychological Science, people who start smiling in a stressful situation have a decrease in heart rate. And this leads to restoration of calm and self-confidence. In addition, stress with a smile puts less strain on the cardiovascular system, having almost no negative impact on its health.

For those who in difficult situations prefer to maintain a natural panic or neutral expression on their face, their heart continues to pound, and it is more difficult for them to calm down. So next time, even if everything is bad, try to smile - it will make you feel a little better.

Exercises for a beautiful smile

The condition of your lips and teeth is of course very important, but you also need to ensure that your lips are positioned correctly and learn how to use your facial muscles correctly. For a smile, not only the position of the lips is important, but also how a person’s eyes look when smiling.

For a good smile, you need to perform simple exercises that will not only make it perfect, but also slow down aging and improve blood circulation.

Before performing the exercises, you need to wash your hands, as you will need to touch your face with your hands.

Five exercises to make your smile beautiful:

1. Smile widely. Correct your smile and check its symmetry. Afterwards, fix your lips in this position for 15 seconds, you can hold the corners of your lips with your fingers. This exercise must be performed 10-15 times a day;
2. Fold your lips into a tube and stretch them forward, you need to stay in this position for ten seconds. This exercise also needs to be done 10-15 times a day;
3. Stretch your tongue forward and take it with your lips, holding your tongue for 5 seconds. Perform 10 repetitions per day;
4. Place three fingers on your cheeks. Pull your cheeks down slightly and smile. Duration of execution is 10 seconds, it must be done 15 times a day;
5. Inhale quite deeply and exhale through tightly pursed lips. Repeat this task 20 times.

By performing these exercises, your smile will become truly beautiful. Also, do not forget to monitor the condition of your teeth and lips.

Give up bad habits and try to drink less coffee, as it turns your teeth yellow, and the sugar contained in this drink causes tooth decay.

In this training video, Alexandra Possokhova will tell you how to become the owner of a beautiful smile, what exercises will help develop it:

Immunity will be strengthened

Smiling causes the body to produce white blood cells - leukocytes - faster. Leukocytes are one of the key soldiers of the immune system: they are responsible for protecting the body from viruses, bacteria and other infections. The more quickly the body can produce white blood cells in response to a threat, the greater the immunity. Research by A. Béres, Z. Lelovics et al. “Does happiness help healing?” Immune response of hospitalized children may change during visits of the Smiling Hospital Foundation's Artists / Orvosi Hetilap, conducted with the participation of children in hospitals, demonstrate: in hospitalized children, who are visited by animators and clowns, making them smile, the level of white blood cells is higher than in children who are not amused.

Sincere smile

To prevent your smile from looking “tight,” you need to relax your facial muscles. Because only on a relaxed face can a beautiful and sincere smile appear.

The most sincere smile is when the muscles around the eyes contract while smiling. Smile in front of the mirror and pay attention to the muscles around the eyes; if the eye muscles remain unchanged, while smiling, try squinting your eyes a little and feeling the small pads under the eyes.

Once you learn to use your eyes when you smile, it will look more sincere.

Do the following three exercises to relax your face :

1. Open your mouth wide so that the skin on your lips, chin and cheeks stretches. Freeze for 5 seconds and then relax. Do the exercise 5 times;
2. Take a deep breath and stick your tongue out as far as possible. Then exhale sharply. Repeat the exercise ten times;
3. And in the last exercise you need to lightly pinch your cheeks. This will improve blood circulation.

Also, to keep your smile looking natural, try to avoid negative thoughts. And if suddenly your interlocutor evokes negative thoughts, try to abstract yourself and think about something positive.

Doing all the above exercises and having a positive attitude will allow you to smile naturally and beautifully. Over time, you will achieve a perfect smile, but do not forget to monitor the condition of your teeth and consult your dentist from time to time, and also systematically do exercises and practice in front of the mirror.

How to learn to smile naturally with teeth: options for different smiles with teeth

So, we have looked at the main reasons why you may be embarrassed to “show” your teeth in a smile. There is a problem - accept it or fix it. There is no other way to resolve the issue and cannot be. Now let's move on to the question of how to learn to smile naturally with teeth. To do this, you will need a front camera with a timer, free time and a good mood:

• Never, hear, never say “h-i-i-i-i-z” at the moment of the photo if you do not want to resemble a distorted clown. Open your mouth slightly in a smile and say a drawn-out “uh-uh.” First with sound, then when you understand which muscles are involved, you can do it silently. Take a few dozen frames to understand whether this is your technique and the optimal width of lip opening. For some it is better to slightly expose their teeth, while for others it is better to completely expose their teeth;
• A few seconds before the photo, laugh at some joke, but not rolling with laughter, but slightly, showing your teeth. To create this effect, think of a fun event or a funny joke, memes and funny faces will also work. Try different variations of giggles, remember how the muscles work and use this in the future;
• Place the tip of your tongue under the upper front teeth, then smile, opening your teeth. The result is a classic Hollywood smile. But remember, it is important not to put on a grimace, but to smile naturally;
• Close your eyes, relax, think about your loved one and, opening your eyes, smile. You will get the most sincere smile with the least tense facial muscles.

A sincere smile with well-groomed teeth is the best adornment of a person.

How to learn to smile beautifully

The importance of a smile is difficult to overestimate. It is not for nothing that it is considered a tool that, skillfully used, can influence people. The only question is that I don’t know everything about the features of its use.

Insincere smile

You've probably seen tips on how to smile correctly. From TV screens and the pages of printed publications they advise to practice in front of a mirror, watch how exposed your teeth are, create dimples on your cheeks and a mysterious look. But, as practice has shown, they turned out to be ineffective.

The reason is that there is no sincerity here. You put on a mask. Therefore, it’s not a smile, but a grin, like an advertisement for toothpaste. She's cold, formal, fake. This is a whole set of negative epithets. The only thing it lacks is real, living emotions.

The art of smiling: advice from a psychologist

The first and most important advice is to be sincere. When you smile, you should only have positive emotions inside you. This is the only way you will show your openness and be able to win the trust of others.

What else do experts say?

1. Relax. If you have an important meeting, take a walk in the park before it, take a bath, or just sit in a comfortable position. Think about something pleasant.
2. Control your thoughts. Free yourself from unpleasant emotions and memories. They will cause irritation, anger, aggression. What kind of sincere smile can we talk about here?
3. Tune in to a pleasant wave. Remember some pleasant moment from your life. This could be a past vacation, events related to children, family holidays. Discover bright memories hidden in the subconscious.
4. Maintain the good mood that you managed to create. No need to spoil it with negativity. Don't let yourself or others do this.
5. Before the meeting, try to form a good attitude towards the interlocutor. If you can do this, you will definitely smile sincerely.

The last piece of advice concerns situations where it was not possible to develop sympathy for a person. In this case, just don't concentrate on it. Keep thinking positive thoughts and smiling.

Secrets of a charming smile

In addition to exercises, there are other techniques.

1. Training in front of a mirror will help consolidate the results, because your face will gradually get used to the new position.
2. Once you put on a radiant smile, you will see the friendly attitude of the people around you. You'll love it!
3. Stop smoking and drinking coffee often to avoid damaging your teeth.
4. Use whitening at least once a month.
5. Maintain facial symmetry. You will never be able to smile sweetly if your face is distorted. Achieving symmetry is difficult, but it is necessary. Go to the mirror, smile, maintaining symmetry. Remember this state!
6. Approaching the mirror, press the corners of your lips with your fingers and make cute facial expressions. Practice, it will do you good.
7. If after several trainings your fingers do not find the edges of your lips, repeat this exercise again until this facial expression begins to work out by itself.

Why do you need to do exercises?

By strengthening your facial muscles, you will be able to freely use your facial expressions and create a sincere smile.

And sincerity can disarm any enemy, improve relations with a strict boss, and quickly conclude a business agreement.

When you feel like crying out of despair, blur out from your heart and you will feel much better. You will soon feel that your sadness is not so terrible, you will want to have fun and laugh. If you made a mistake, a shy smile will help smooth it out. Children use this technique and everything is forgiven for them.

If a person has grief or sadness, try to help him by simply smiling, encouraging, helping with advice.

After all, if I don’t burn,

And if you don't burn,

And if we don't burn,

Then who will dispel the darkness?

Nazim Hikmet, Turkish poet

A smile is magic. A smile is contagious. A smile is the easiest and most effective way to establish contact. A smiling person is like a magnet that attracts positive people, good circumstances, brilliant ideas, luck, success, joy, prosperity and wealth.

A smile improves health, prolongs youth and gives happiness. The wider a person’s smile and the more contagious his laughter, the longer his life. When a person smiles

The body produces
the happiness hormone endorphin
, which creates a feeling of happiness here and now. When we smile, we feel happy. Smile = happiness!

An analogy can be drawn: in order to live, a person needs oxygen, and in order to be happy, he needs to smile as much as possible. A smile is necessary for happiness, like oxygen is for life.

Endorphin is produced and creates a feeling of happiness regardless of whether the laughter is artificial or sincere.

Madan Kataria, one of my teachers, who is also known as "Doctor Laughter", uses laughter therapy

to improve people's well-being. He started his practice many years ago and discovered all the secrets of a smile, all its magic, which he shares with people. Kataria organized the first Laughter Club in India, where people come just to laugh. After all, 15-20 minutes of laughter will charge you with energy for the whole day!

Now there are tens of thousands of such laughter clubs around the world. People come to these clubs to laugh, recharge with positive energy, and raise their emotional level. Group exercises begin with forced, artificial laughter, which then flows into sincere laughter, thanks to eye contact and the accumulation of endorphins. I practice many exercises in trainings and they work perfectly. This is a wonderful tool, by mastering it and taking control of your emotions, you can ensure a good mood at any time.

Laughter helps combat the negative effects of stress because it helps reduce levels of stress-causing hormones.

, improves the functioning of the immune system. Laughter significantly reduces the symptoms of coughs, colds, sore throats, and also helps lower blood pressure. The recovery process for a sick person goes twice as fast if he has a positive attitude and smiles! I experienced this myself. Even Charles Darwin said that the very act of smiling improves your mood, and subsequently your well-being. Our worst enemies are negative emotions!

We are born with a smile. The developing fetus smiles while still in the womb. This can be seen using three-dimensional ultrasound. After birth, the baby continues to smile. Pay attention to children, they smile just like that, for no reason. Children always smile - in the morning, during the day, in the evening and even in their sleep, and this is an incredibly sweet sight.

Children have amazing superpowers. They smile about 400 times a day, while adults smile about 17. And some don't smile at all. Pay attention to the people walking down the street, passing in cars... In places where there are a lot of them, they will be smiling. at best, 1-2 people, and that’s because they will see your shining, smiling face. The majority of people are gloomy and gray. They live in their own worlds that they have invented for themselves. People, what's wrong with you? Go down the Moscow metro and you won't see a single smile. In the city it is also very rare to see a smiling person walking or driving past.

A smile brings so much pleasure

that even
chocolate
cannot compare with it. Scientists say that one smile causes the same stimulation as two thousand chocolate bars. Just think about this number! And no extra calories! The same study proved that just smiling is as stimulating as receiving $25,000 in cash. Children smile about 400 times a day. If we multiply 400 by 25 thousand, we get 10 million dollars. Looks like the kids are enjoying themselves like dollar millionaires!

As soon as a person grows up, magical transformations happen to him - he smiles less and frowns more. Society leaves its mark, and negative thinking aggravates the situation. One gloomy person in negativity is like a rotten apple in a basket that needs to be removed as soon as possible so that the rest do not spoil. The later this is done, the more apples will be susceptible to spoilage. It’s the same with people - one person can infect the entire team with negativity.

But if in the case of an apple the process is irreversible, then with a person the situation is simpler. It can be translated from negative thinking

into
a positive thinker.
To do this, he himself must want to change and start working on himself. The Holy Scriptures say that despondency is one of the deadly sins. We drive ourselves into a dead end, into a dark forest, into an abyss, and this is a person’s personal choice!

A smile can bring joy to other people too! When a person smiles, those around him also begin to smile. A smile is contagious and spreads instantly.

Experiments have been carried out repeatedly to confirm this. When Madan Kataria came to Moscow, he and his colleagues went down to the metro and showed in practice how it works.

Entering the subway car, he took out his phone and began imitating a conversation. After a short time he laughed, and after a few minutes all the passengers in this carriage were laughing loudly. First one laughed, looking at him, then another, and then everyone laughed without exception, some even to tears.

Agree, dear friend, it’s hard to resist smiling when everyone around you is laughing. No matter how gloomy, stern or serious you are at this moment. It's easy to explain. When we communicate with people who smile often, we also smile more often. Smiles are contagious, they weaken control over the facial muscles and a person cannot keep a smile. Like attracts like.

A person's laughter is like the fire of a single candle that illuminates the darkness. It lights up hundreds and thousands of candles. First, one candle lights the second, then two more will light up from these two, then four, and so on. As a result, it becomes lighter and warmer. A smiling man among the gloomy gray mass is like a sparkling light in the darkness, from which everyone strives to light up and sparkle. A positive person is 10 times more likely to become healthy and wealthy.

A smile is a passport to the world of happiness, joy, love and wealth. By smiling, we look better, more confident, more successful, happier in the eyes of others. We appear more likable, courteous and competent. Smile friends, smile as often as possible!

To assimilate and consolidate this law, perform the following exercises:

• From today, start every morning with a smile. As soon as you wake up and open your eyes, smile. Then, before you wash your face and brush your teeth, looking in the mirror, smile at yourself a few more times and laugh.
• Teach yourself to smile just like that, without any reason. Do the "lock" exercise. Imagine that your lips are two zippers from the lock, and you are holding the slider with your hand. You open the lock and smile, close it and stop. Do this exercise several times a day until you learn to smile for no reason and understand that smiling is easy and pleasant.
• Perform daily at least 200 smiles per day, for advanced ones - 400 smiles per day.
• Smile at 10 random strangers passing by. Give them your smile while looking into their eyes. Pay attention to how people react, what happens to them.
• From today, when you meet acquaintances, friends, relatives, colleagues, as well as new acquaintances, you will smile!

Author: Dmitry Vasiliev

Training center of Dmitry Vasiliev