This is the Smile Exercise. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete. But just because it’s quick, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Especially if you’re feeling down. But do it in spite of how you’re feeling and do it often.
Good feelings and positive experiences are important parts of our lives. They are the times that motivate us to work and struggle. Those are the times we fight for and dream about.
– AzLadyGeek
Smile Exercise Instructions:
- For this first exercise, think about a really positive experience you’ve had in the past, something that gave you really good feelings inside.
- Keep thinking about that positive experience, smile, and make a few `feeling good’ sounds: Mmmmmmm, Ooooh, Aaaahhhhh. Do this even if you are faking the smile!
- Do it again: Smile bigger and make the sounds louder!
- Now, do it a third time: SMILE!!!! MMMMMMmmmm, OOOOOoooooooh, Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!
Credits
This positivity exercise was created by Rob Kall, M.Ed.
Dr. Kall made the following observations:
- [W]hen you stop one behavior, you have to replace it with another behavior…. The goal is to learn new behaviors– healthy ones– which will supplant the unwanted behaviors. It’s less toil, more fun and more hopeful to work at learning to turn on good feelings and build skills for having more and better positive experiences.
- I began asking my patients to remember heartwarming experiences they’d enjoyed in the past while I monitored their physiological responses with a computerized biofeedback polygraph system. When they’d get into connecting with their warm hearted memories, all the physiology would go in the right direction–muscles would relax, hands would warm up, sweat gland activity would quiet, heart rate and respiration would become more stable. It was like magic– more powerful than half a dozen other commonly used relaxation and self control techniques.