I don’t think I ever really paid attention to that phrase while reading it in numerous places throughout my lifetime. Until today, I don’t think I was ever compelled by it. For those of you who know me, I smile…. A LOT! That is who I am, and it is genuine. I smile at people passing by because I am pleased to see a new face. I smile when I am paying for a purchase at a retail store, because I am pleased to be finally paying for my purchases.
When I first started working where I work, I used to visit the Cafeteria for lunch on a daily basis. The lady that always made my turkey wrap, always seemed indifferent; as if I was just another person coming through the line that she had to mechanically ask “How can I help you?” to. I always smiled at her and told her what I would like, and always said, “Thank you, Have a good one!” upon receiving my completed order.
I always remembered her, because I encountered this one woman daily for one specific task. She was my “Wrap Maker” to Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi”. I never thought she’d remember me, because she encountered hundreds of people daily while performing the task that these people wanted her to complete for them.
I stopped going to the cafeteria upon realizing that I was spending more money on a wrap that I could get for a few bucks cheaper at a well established yellowed sub shop less than a mile down the road. Eventually, I just stopped eating lunch because I just got too busy to think about it, and then the Nutri System came, so I didn’t have to venture too far away for lunch.
Today I was a little on the sluggish side, and decided to go to the cafeteria and get a cup of hot coffee to wake my mind up. I went to pay for the coffee, and there is my “Wrap Maker” as the cashier. Apparently, they were now cross training everyone so that their jobs would be more fulfilling. However, when I walked up to her, I smiled and said “Good Morning!”; not expecting her to recognize me in the least. Well, to my surprise, she got a HUGE smile on her face and said “MY, MY sweetheart you have LOST weight!! You look GOOD, Lady!!” (caps were used as emphasis on for those words) She said how good it was to see me again, and that she hadn’t seen me in about a year. She kept wondering if I’d gotten another job or something. She said she probably would not have recognized me had it not been for “That pretty smile on your face!”. She told me how she always looked forward to me being in line because of my smile, she said it gave her a break from the complainers, and unpleasantness that comes with her job. I thanked her for the kind comments, and told her that I’d come up there every now and then for a cup of coffee or fruit, but that I couldn’t order any more wraps due to the diet. She smiled back at me and said “Thank You! Have a good one!”. As I walked away I said “Thanks, and You Too!”.
I am now fully aware of what a smile does. I know how it made me feel when someone smiles at me, but I never focused on how my smile would make someone else feel; and now I know.
I know this wasn’t really diet related, however, I felt the need to blog about it, because I was so happy that my “Wrap Maker” remembered who I was. Here I am, thinking that I was just another person in her line. I guess I got proved wrong. :-)
I hope you all have a beautiful rest of the week!! Keep Smiling!!
Susan's Smile
Erin's Smile
Grandmama's Smile
My Smile
Steps on how to smile: published by WikiPedia
1. Practice good hygiene. If you've got bits of food stuck in your brown teeth, people may indeed say you have an infectious smile, but they might be talking about actual infections. It should go without saying, but regularly brushing your teeth and making sure your breath is fresh are prerequisites to a good smile. If your teeth are stained, visit the dentist for a polishing or use a whitening product, and take care of your lips to prevent chapping. When you smile people will inevitably look at your mouth, so following these considerations will help you make a better impression, and, more importantly, a healthy mouth will make you feel more confident about smiling.
2. Get comfortable with smiling. Many people are a little nervous about smiling. They don't think their smile looks good, or they think that smiling makes them look unprofessional or vulnerable. It's true that a smile does show a little vulnerability, but that's part of what makes it so powerful. No matter how professional, intelligent, or in control you think a serious face (or worse, a frown) makes you appear, people almost always respond better to a smile.
Think happy thoughts. The easiest way to a great smile is to be happy. You can't be happy all the time, of course, but you can think happy thoughts. Think about something or someone that you care about, or think about a joke that you just find hilarious. Remarkably, when you're feeling down, smiling can help cheer you up, even if you have to coax a smile out at first.
Smile with your eyes. When we think of smiling, we think of the mouth, but the eyes may actually be more essential to a warm, genuine smile. Smiling with your eyes is difficult to describe--in general your cheekbones lift slightly and your eyebrows dip a little--but when you see it, you know it: it's that look of your eyes "lighting up" or "twinkling." To get a feel for how to make your eyes smile, get in front of a mirror and practice smiling, but concentrate only on your eyes. You may find it helpful to cover the lower part of your face with a piece of paper. Play around with it a bit, and you'll find that you can make your mouth smile when your eyes aren't smiling, and you can also smile only with your eyes. When your eyes do smile, remember how it feels, which muscles are working and how. With practice, you'll be able to smile with your eyes at will.
3. Develop your smile. Don't particularly care for your smile? It's a common complaint, and while it's true that any smile is better than a frown, it's also true that some smiles look better than others. What's your best smile? One way to find out is to look through pictures of yourself. Many people who consider themselves unphotogenic are plagued by bad smiles in front of the camera, but just about everybody has at least one picture in which they just look great, with a perfectly natural, contagious smile. Find that picture and focus on what your face is doing. Then practice in front of a mirror until you get it just right. Keep practicing, and pay attention to how that great smile feels, so that you'll be able to replicate it without looking in a mirror. Soon it will become second nature, and you'll likely find that you'll look more photogenic in your next batch of pictures.
If you want to improve your smile, look at pictures of smiles that you believe are beautiful. Also, think good thoughts and remember that you are beautiful (inside and out). Your smile is bound to look better if you feel good about yourself!
