The common urban folk like you and me should learn, among other things, how to simplify things and relearn some old tricks that we might have forgotten along life's journey. One of them is to relearn how to smile to find the right balance in life again

No, this is not an article about how to have perfectly white teeth. In fact, I’m talking about how to beat stress with…yes, something as simple as a smile.

Looking at the kind of lifestyle that modern folks like you and me are living in today, it’s hard to imagine any one of us smiling beyond 3 times a day. OK, let’s just be nice to each other and assume that we smiled 6 times today…twice my predicted number of times. Frankly speaking, I smiled twice today. Once, a forced one to the man who washed my car everyday when he was asking me for money and I didn’t have the cash with me. And another time when my kid said that he was going to grow a tooth the size of a fridge because it ached (his tooth was falling out but trust a six-year-old to make a mountain out of a falling tooth).

When I typed in the word ‘smiling’ into google looking for pictures of smiling people, I came across an article on the Internet written by someone trying to teach someone ‘how to smile’. Smiling comes naturally to every single one of us and unless we had some kind of facial muscle disorder, all we need is a thought or the will to be happy in order to smile – so what’s with the ‘how to smile’ article? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Let me share one fact with you that might came as a surprise to you – a grimace is the one other facial expression that comes closest to a smile….beat that! The only difference between the two is the emotions and chemicals coursing in and out of the bloodstream, splashing in and out of glands and the brain. So, if you can grimace well, you’re not far from a smile. The only difference is that when you’re stressed, it takes no effort to grimace while your smiling skill becomes lost in a world of wrangled nerves.

Quoting a certain Phyllis Diller, a smile is a curve that sets everything straight. When we smile, regardless of what is happening around us, we’ll miraculously feel better. In today’s world where we’re often surrounded by a whirlwind of activities, it’s actually quite hard, I have to admit, to find a reason to smile but it’s all in the head. The gray matter up there controls our actions and if you give instructions to the headquarters up there to smile, believe it or not, you will.

The reason why I only managed to smile twice today is because I forgot to remind myself to smile more. But once you get me started, I’d be rolling on the bed with tears of laughter streaming down my face once again with the kids over Calvin and Hobbes. On most days, I have Calvin and Hobbes handy…today isn’t my day.

Some people don’t understand how difficult it can be for stressed out, burned-out, overwhelmed folks like me (and maybe you) feel because they don’t chase the hands of the clock as much. Some friends of mine actually complain that they need to find something to do to fill in the time and I went like, "Ack! Here…do some of my stuff". But of course, my sincerity was met with incredulous expressions.

Yoga, meditation, walks, exercise, a change in diet, cutting out of alcohol, cigarettes, sleeping earlier….yes, all of that would have to come into the picture if you want to live a more balanced life, but these are stuff that you would have to master and BIG changes are to be made. I recommend starting with something small like learning how to smile all over again if you want to live a quality life.

Find reasons to smile in everything that you do. The car breaks down, smile at the scenery. You woke up late, smile at the extra number of minutes you got to sleep. The repair man is a jerk, smile that he’s leaving. A friend broke a promise, smile that she would have to spend you dinner the next time you meet.

Seriously, the world always looks that much brighter when you make a concerted effort to see a smile beyond everything in life.

By marsha maung : Buzzle.com