Smile vs Frown

 ‘Smile’ is a facial expression in which eyes brighten and the corners of the mouth comes slightly upwards while ‘Frown’ is a facial expression indicating disapproval, displeasure or concentration characterized by a frowning of one’s brows.

It is true that happiness will make us smile while anger and sadness will make us frown or cry. Just the act of smiling can briefly make us brighten our mood, whereas grimacing or frowning can make us irritable or upset or mad.

“Conventional wisdom tells us that we can feel a little happier when we smile; on the other hand we can get ourselves in a more serious mood if we frown” Nicholas Coles

Popular aphorisms such as “it takes 43 muscles to frown and only 17 muscles to smile” claiming a greater number of facial muscles are needed to produce a frown than to generate a smile.

According to Discover Magazine there are 3 types of human smile:

1.   ‘Reward Smile’ are displayed to reward the self or other people and to communicate positive experiences or intentions.

2.   ‘Affiliate Smile’ facilitates social bonding by communicating approachability and appeasement.

3.   ‘Dominated Smiles’ serve to maintain and negotiate social or moral states and are associated with superiority or pride and contempt.

Benefits of a smile:

1.   It is easier to smile than it is to frown.

2.   Smiling reduces blood pressure.

3.   Smiling makes you look successful.

4.   Smiling improves your immune system.

5.   Smiling can help you live longer.

6.   “ Peace begins with a smile”

7.   99.7% people feel an attractive smile is an important personal asset.

8.   Smiling takes less of a toll on your body and your mental health.

9.   It elevates your mood, decreases your stress muscles, relaxes those around you and even makes you more attractive to others.

10. Faking a smile when the pressure is actually on reduces the normal increase in the heart rate that occurs during a stressful situation.

While I do not find any advantages of frowning I wish to highlight a few disadvantages here :

1.   When you are angry or frowning you sulk and sometimes becomes violent.

2.   You get older fast when you frown a lot. You look older than your age because you invite frown lines and wrinkles on your face especially the forehead.

3.   More difficult to frown than to smile as you use more muscles to frown and far less muscles to smile.

4.   The more you frown, the less attractive you become.

5.   Friends are like a magnet to smile, hence when you are in the habit of frowning you are sure to have less friends or no friends at all.

6.   It is like a barrier and like telling people to stay off.

7.   When anger dominates the heart beats faster, the blood pressure rises and blood vessels strain.

8.   Blood platelets are likely to form clots, blocking arteries and causing heart disease because of anger.

I understand Punjabis are one of the most jovial, playful and humorous societies of the world. There are numerous jokes on Sikhs but they never mind and never feel bad, in fact they sometimes themselves crack such jokes on themselves. Sometimes by their playful attitude they can convey their point to others without offending them.

This playful attitude which makes home a point to others has been shown to them by their learned Gurus. An incident to make one understand this comes to my mind :

Guru Nanak was travelling all over India preaching the learnings of Almighty. One day he reached Hardwar where he found people standing in the shallow water of the river Ganga and offering 'jal' to the sun. Guruji was very surprised but in order to make the people understand he too entered the shallow water and started offering 'jal' in the opposite direction.

When the other people standing with him asked "The sun is on this side, why are you offering 'jal' in the opposite direction?" Guruji smiled and said " You offer 'jal' to the sun and I am offering 'jal' to Kartarpur Sahib ( the second holiest site of Sikh religion a gurdwara) ".

This way Guruji did not get angry at them, but in a playful way, not offending anyone he made home his point that "God" is everywhere and it doesn't matter in which direction you see him.

Friends, isn’t it better to smile than to frown? Laughter is the best medicine: relieves tension, keeps blood vessels dilated and improves circulation and oxygen supply to the heart muscles.

I understand it is easier said than done but friends my secret to a happier life would be ‘Stop Frowning, Start Smiling’.

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Inputs from Google and pic from unsplash.com,ifairer