Fake it until you make it.
(Sometimes.)
Recently, awesome human/Peloton instructor Robin Arzon said (through the app and my Airpods) that when feeling fatigued during a long run, we should smile-- it will make it better. I laughed at the suggestion but tried it anyway.
She was not wrong.
Researchers from the University of Kansas* studied the relationship between facial expressions and the body's reaction to stress. To do so, they put three different groups of people through stressful situations (like using the non-dominant hand to copy an image seen in a mirror or plunging their fist into a bucket of ice water) -- all while holding a single chopstick in their mouth. The researchers monitored participants' heart rates throughout the experiment.
- The first group simply rested the chopstick horizontally gently between their teeth, keeping their lips relaxed (neutral expression).
- The second group was told to hold it similarly, yet to show some teeth (standard smile).
- The third group gripped the chopstick in their mouths while fully engaging their facial muscles-- all the way up to their eyes. This expression actually has a name: It's called the Duchenne smile and is achieved when one activates the muscles in the corner of the mouth, cheeks and corners of the eyes all at once.
Any guesses about the study's results?
All three groups experienced similar initial reactions of stress. Their heart rates initially escalated with each challenge.
BUT!
The heart rates of people in the two groups that held the chopstick with some degree of smile returned to normal quicker than the heart rates measured in the straight-faced group. The smiling groups, particularly the one with the Duchenne smile, actually decreased their bodies' physical response to stress faster than those with the neutral-expression.
The researchers concluded that in limited stressful situations, faking a smile actually has a positive physiological component. (Conversely, when we fake a smile too often for long-term stressful situations we actually become more stressed ourselves because of the energy needed to keep up the incongruence.)
If you need more reasons to bust an ear-to-ear grin, know that smiling while speaking creates an auditory smile that listeners actually "hear" without seeing it! Subtle nonverbal signals like this can pack a big impact on one's interpretation of a message. This is particularly good to know when solving customer problems on the phone. And when face-to-face, smiling can actually be contagious, too (thanks to mirror neurons that light up in our brains). True story.
There's so much more to expand upon, but in the sake of brevity:
We have so many good reasons to smile, especially when stressed!
And one more thing: Even though I love to run, if you see me with a goofy grin while forging up a steep hill, cut me a break. I might just be giving my heart a little nonverbal support.
Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
*Full article: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/smiling-facilitates-stress-recovery.html