Not only is it free, as week-end workshop facilitator Cynthia Bianco said to us, it is also highly infectious. Try not to smile when someone smiles at you - it feels quite awkward. But it's usually a one-way street. How often does it happen that someone smiles at you when you put on a stern face? However, when you directly smile at people, most can't help but smile back at you. And, lo and behold, the world becomes a friendlier place. Smiling immediately turns your energy around from negative to positive. They say "fake it 'til you make it. " That's good advice since body and mind are interconnected and influence one another. The more you gently remind yourself to smile, the more it becomes part of an inner radiance.
One of the women who attends an energy development class I regularly go to struck me because she always has this radiant contagious smile on her face. It makes the whole room shine and it actually feels weird not to smile back.
Yesterday morning I had a chat with my daughter's camp van driver. On my way back to the car a worker, who was painting some woodwork on a store entrance, smiled at me spontaneously. I realized that I was still smiling from my conversation with the van driver and that my smile spread outward like a ripple effect.
Try it sometime - walk down the street smiling and see what happens.
P.S.: Also see a previous post on positive thinking.