TRY THIS AND SMILE Try this: Learn how to smile a Duchenne smile. This involves two facial muscles: the zygomatic major (raising the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi (raising the cheeks to produce crow’s feet around the eyes). A fake, so-called ‘Botox smile’ only uses the zygomatic major – you can’t voluntarily contract the orbicularis oculi, although you can squint slightly. So if you want to smile a Duchenne smile, try this: 1) Imagine a joyful situation. Leading neuroscientist Andrew Newberg suggests visualising someone you love deeply or recalling an event that brought you deep satisfaction and joy will help to make your smile more genuine. Equally, you may want to think of a joke or situation that made you laugh. 2) Practise smiling in front of the mirror. Practise activating both corners of your mouth and your eye sockets. You will know when your smile is genuine because you will feel happy and relaxed. 3) Concentrate on your eyes. Cover the lower part of your face with a piece of paper. When your eyes are smiling, really concentrate on what muscles are working and why, and remember this each time you smile. Try to engage these muscles each time you smile, even if you feel the smile scenario is ‘fake’. 4) Mark how happy you feel. As you practise your smile, on a scale of one to ten, gauge how happy smiling with just your mouth makes you feel. Then do the same, but smile with your eyes. At the beginning of the month, mark on the same scale how happy you are feeling in general. Over the month, try to smile with your eyes in each smile scenario you come across, then after a month, mark how happy you are feeling now.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 06:44:47 +0000
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