Picture this;
You’re in a supermarket line at the checkout waiting your turn. You scan around and see that all registers have insanely long lines; and your way back in the queue.
How do you react?
Today I was in this scenario, and I found that in accepting and smiling, this situation not only changed me, but others around me. You see, I smiled, and an elderly couple picked me out in the crowd; her eyes locked in on mine and she then called me over to get in front of her.
I’ll confess; I only had 4 items and she and her elderly husband had a trolley (like others queuing), but there were also many people standing around with 8 or fewer items in their hands.
At first I gently refuse the kind offer, then others in the queue jumped to her defence and voiced: “No, go on take her up on her offer” and other words to that effect. I moved up ahead of her, and many others who had encouraged me to do so. I had actually queue-jumped a heap of people, and all of them were happy for me to do so. The cause for all this was my smile; and it was contagious as many had suddenly donned a smile as well.
Your smile is a great pitching tool that sells you to other people. It is very powerful and it is one of our greatest assets for creating the outcomes we desire, and the best part is it’s free.
So again I’ll ask; How do you react?
The Science of Smile
Psychological scientists Tara Kraft and Sarah Pressman of the University of Kansas investigated the potential benefits of smiling, and how the awareness of smiling, affects individuals’ ability to recover from episodes of stress.
Amazingly, the results of the study suggest that smiling may actually influence our physical state.
Their findings show that smiling during brief bouts of stress can help to reduce the intensity of the body’s stress response, regardless of whether a person actually feels happy.
In that case; Smile!
Read more of Tara Kraft’s and Sarah Pressman’s research.
photo credit: rent-a-moose via photopin cc
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