Smile!

I made it my intention today to make eye contact with everyone who came across my path, and simply smile!

As you can imagine, this simple act of kindness really drew a variety of reactions; from frowns to smiles back, to pleasant beginnings of conversations.

Have we gotten so far away from each other that a simple smile would make us suspicious? I can almost hear people's thoughts as they try and figure out why I'm smiling at them!

"What does she want?" "What's she looking at?" "Do I look funny to you?"

You get the picture. Now let me ask you; what is your reaction when someone smiles at you? Do you have negative questions running around your mind even though you succeed in squirting out a smile back?

Perhaps it's time to change our perceptions just a bit. As many of us know, it takes less muscles to smile than to frown; and if you smile (even force yourself to smile) for just a few minutes, it will completely change how you look at situations in your life.

And what about the other person? Perhaps they have had a bad day or just received some bad news and seeing the lovely smile on your face helps them for just a nano second get their mind off that horrible feeling. Just think; If this person were to run into more people who gave them that nano second worth of freedom, they just might be able to rise out of their sad state of mind and begin to see things from a more positive view. Wow! All this, simply because we decided to smile.

Okay, but why look them in the eye? Why not just smile in their direction?

Here's my idea . . .

Have you ever heard that the eyes are the window to the soul? So if you were to look a person directly in the eye and smile, my thought is that you could reach down into their very soul and give them a piece of sunshine. It takes courage to look a stranger in the eye, but if you can do it; well, now they can actually feel that smile in the depths of their being! The result is that you have shared a joyful moment with someone. And they know you are sincere because, as you've looked them in the eye, they have been forced to do the same to you! How powerful is that?

So next time you're out and about, why not give it a try! When you get home, think about how smiling affected your life today. Don't you feel wonderful? Go ahead! Share a smile!