Tip of the Week: Hack Your Happiness
By Ashley Huckabee
According to a recent study published in Experimental Psychology, researchers found smiling — even a fake smile — can have a positive impact on mood. Essentially, triggering certain facial muscles by smiling can “trick” your brain into thinking you’re happy.
“When your muscles say you’re happy, you’re more likely to see the world around you in a positive way,” Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, study author and human and artificial cognition expert at the University of South Australia, said in a press release.
To conduct the study, researchers asked 120 participants (55 males and 65 females) to smile by holding a pen between their teeth, which forced their facial muscles to replicate the movement of a smile.
They found that facial muscular activity not only altered one’s facial expression but also generated more positive emotions.
Marmolejo-Ramos said the muscle movements of a smile stimulate the amygdala — the part of your brain that allows you to feel emotions — by releasing neurotransmitters “to encourage an emotionally positive state.”
“For mental health, this has interesting implications. If we can trick the brain into perceiving stimuli as ‘happy,’ then we can potentially use this mechanism to help boost mental health.”
Link to full article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/08/21/simple-trick-that-can-make-you-happier-according-to-research.html?espv=1
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