The Science of Smiling (Part 2)

“Even faking a smile will trigger your brain’s reward  mechanism and release happy juice.”

We previously reprinted an excerpt from Bobby Schuller’s book, You Are Beloved. The following is more from his book:

[One] study showed there were several non-drug-related ways you could hit the brain’s reward mechanism. The number two thing on the list, not surprisingly, was eating chocolate.

What was the only thing that beat out chocolate as a happy trigger? Smiling. Even faking a smile will trigger your brain’s reward mechanism and release happy juice.

You know you used to smile more. The average adult smiles twenty times a day. The average child smiles four hundred times a day. What happened? Has life been so hard for us all that we can’t smile as we did when we were children?

Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:3). Could it be that part of that change is reclaiming the joy and laughter of our childhood?

You are a joyful person. Believe it and release it. You are full of energy and life. Let it come out. Let go of your pride. Let go of proving yourself to others. God takes pleasure in you and wants you to take pleasure in the gift of life.