We all know the benefits of happiness and a smile. But your smile needs to be genuine, doesn't it? Growing up in India in the 90s, I strongly believed that emotions and expressions need to be genuine. Then, I moved to South Africa in 2011. I have lived abroad (in the UK and Australia) before. But, nowhere before was I greeted by so many smiles and greetings! My first exposure to this culture was while taking the lift on my first day at work. There was a woman in the lift who greeted me "Hi; how are you?" I was so lost! I was thinking, "Do I know this person? But that is impossible. I just arrived in this country and the only person I know is not this person!" Being an introvert, I did not tell these things aloud. Within a year or so, I picked up the habit of smiling at and greeting strangers. (It took me a decade to accept the casualness with which people ask "How are you?" in South Africa and I still can not do that myself!)
But greeting and smiling I could; and soon I saw the effects. When I used to travel to India, I saw its effect distinctly in customer-facing places like malls and airport check-in counters. Customer-facing jobs are tiring in general. They are more so in Asian countries where people are often on the edge. No one smiles at the guys or girls doing check-in in airports. The effect of a smile is magical. Most of the time they would look surprised at first. And then they would give a meek and shy super-genuine smile in return. So, you see, it is a two-way thing (or win-win as a business expert would term it).
Fast forward many years, in 2024, I moved to Abersywtsyth a small coastal town in the UK. Over the past two years or so, I have also been practicing mindfulness meditation "pretty" regularly. This means, most of the time, I do smile with a genuine feeling of Metta. A few weeks back, I was walking and came across an elderly woman walking past who looked visibly distressed. I smiled and she smiled back. I was a bit mindful and noticed that the return smile she gave me (which was mostly a fake smile) lingered on her lips for a while. And just some time back I read a piece of research that showed that smiles (even fake ones) can positively affect people's mental and physical health! So, just by smiling at strangers, I can improve their health. I felt like a small but powerful demigod 👻. But it is true. We all have immense power in ourselves. A smile is the easiest thing we can give out to the world in general without expecting anything in return. It can literally heal people while healing ourselves!
Let us keep smiling and keep healing and getting healed. The world is a tough place and it can do with all the healings and hugs you can spare.
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