Smiling is contagious.
To test this, next time you leave your house smile at a stranger and you'll see that stranger will smile at another stranger. Very soon the whole street will be smiling.
It's a little like sending one of those chain e-mails that everyone has to forward to five friends. Except it's not an e-mail, it's a smile-mail.
So, if you want to make a refugee smile, you can send them a smile via the smile-mail and be sure they are going to get it sooner or later. The main effect is that they will feel welcome; while the side effect is that your whole street will be grinning in the process.
How to smile
Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics, so here’s a few tips on beaming.
Enjoy smiling
Some people are a bit nervous of smiling. They think it makes them look unattractive, shows off spinach in their teeth or just makes them look like a bit of a maniac. Deal with it. Smiling doesn’t make you look ugly – it makes others feel good, which makes you look gorgeous! And even if you do have spinach in your teeth – that’s bound to make someone else smile back.
Think of happy happy joy joy things
It’s sometimes difficult to smile when you’re walking around with a little black cloud over your head. Luckily, when you're feeling down, smiling can help cheer you up, even if you have to coax a smile out at first. The best way to do this is to think of happy things. Has anything ever made you laugh so much that you nearly peed yourself? What was it? Remember it. Go on. Where was it?
See you’re smiling.
Smile with your eyes
Ever seen someone smile with their mouth but not their eyes? Scary isn’t it.
Smiling with your eyes is the key to a genuine, warm smile. You can’t really explain how to do it- your cheekbones lift slightly and your eyebrows dip a little. But when you see it, you know it: it's that look of your eyes "lighting up" or "twinkling."
If you’re still having trouble smiling, then check out this little tuition video
(It’s in Czech. If you speak Czech that’s great. If not, smiling is a universal language anyway…)
