Smile therapy

I think that most of our health issues can be mitigated if we smile more.

Digital smile design seems to be the latest concept in cosmetic dentistry in India according to the latest news report. The patient’s photo is fed into the computer and the doctor morphs the photograph according to the best suitable smile and viola! we have a patient with a great smile thanks to an oral and maxillofacial surgeon! Great indeed is the work of science, but who would or could make us smile if not ourselves?

Smile is the one component missing from most of our lives. Travel by any public transport or take an elevator down or up any high-rises, we have people studiously looking at the lift panel or facing the door, plugged to their own world of silence and we make it a point not to smile at neighbours, strangers, parents, siblings, children, teachers, bosses, colleagues and acquaintances unless they smile first!

The only exemption to the rule is our fistful of friends! “Laugh, the world laughs with you, cry, you cry alone,” no longer seems to hold true. In both the scenario you are alone for instead of laughing with you and appreciating your good nature, we have people laughing more at you.

Chad Sugg, author of ‘Monsters under your Head’ claims, “If you’re reading this, congratulations, you’re alive. If that’s not something to smile about, then I don’t know what is!”

What a wonderful thought. Yes, we need to smile to show that we are alive, kicking and thinking. Smile, that wonderful curve of your lips brings a reciprocal smile on others if you just try it. And also one should have the inclination to do so. But alas! In this mundane world of hardship we feel a kinship to the modern interpretation of ‘Atlas’ holding the world on his shoulder and feel the same agony. 

I think that most of our health issues can be mitigated if we smile more and appreciate humour more. Even if we can’t alleviate our health issues, we can at least keep the memories alive even when we are no more there to share it with our loved ones. My late uncle honed the art of laughing and making others laugh to almost a fine art. Even when his body was riddled with outlets for the various tubes during his losing battle with cancer, his words, “I am a holey ( holy ) man” brings a smile to my face each time I recall the same even after 4 years of his demise. Not a single family gathering goes by without us fondly remembering his penchant for making his ‘personal space’ a big laughter zone.

He was the nurses’ delight. A pretty Goan nurse while checking his pulse rate commented on it being rather irregular and he made her day when my handsome uncle commented,  “ how will it come to normal when you hold my hand… ask that bearded man to take it and my pulse rate will be more than normal!” Even simple things like the technicians coming to collect blood samples will be accompanied by one liner that so many people are after his blood!

More than his capacity to talk on varied topics, I strongly believe that it was his ability to see the lighter side of life that made him all the more remarkable. In his life time, he put up with amputation, a by-pass surgery and recurring cancer but his smile never lost its lustre.