Did you smile today?

If you know that smiling increases mood-enhancing hormones while decreasing stress-enhancing hormones, including cortisol, and adrenaline and that it also reduces overall blood pressure, we will understand how important it is to smile every day and very often.

"A smile is worth a million dollars, but it doesn’t cost a cent” goes a saying. A smile’s worth was truly discovered by something so heartwarming as this story of a little girl:

Lethukukhanya Mjaji a 5-year-old girl from Albany, NY was walking back from school and went to buy a loaf of bread. Her uncle saw her and took a picture and video of this happy littlegirl carrying a loaf of Albany Bread that she just bought. While she was running home in the mud, he captured the genuine and innocent happiness on her face.

The picture went viral, and the people said this is the kind of picture they would like to associate with their bread.

Instantly the picture was all over billboards and on trucks inAlbany. Everyo ne felt joyful seeing her beautiful radiant smile,it warmed many South Africans for its pure and genuine quality.

People requested that a billboard be constructed with this beautiful picture. The City of Albany responded by contacting her family and with their consent, she became the “Bread Ambassador” for a while. She received a full scholarship for her education  and her single mother got a new house too. No wonder, a smile can work wonders in so many ways!

“A SMILE is a light in the window of the face” and when you have a happy smile the muscles used in the face trigger your brain to produce more endorphins - the chemical that relieves pain and stress.

“It makes the darkest places bright and changes gloom to mirth / A smile is such a passing thing to bring such lasting pleasure; It eases up the load of care and rids the soul of dark despair/No one its worth can measure.”

Let us make it a daily practice to ask ourselves – ‘did you smile today?’ Find reasons or create reasons to SMILE genuinely!