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Spread This....A Smile!

It’s been amazing to see the collective group of humans put their best effort forward to hit the “pause” button and do their part to slow the spread of the virus.

It has also been amazing to see how quickly the ambiguous situation has left many with a blank, flat, or an empty look across their faces. I see heads down, faces turned, etc.

Hard to reciprocate a blank stare…

I wonder…

  • Maybe it’s a general look of “hesitancy?”
  • Maybe it’s a “I don’t know where to look?” look?
  • Maybe it’s the “stranger danger” look?
  • Maybe it’s a “withdrawn” look?
  • Maybe it’s a “lonely” look?
  • Maybe it’s a “distant” look?

Whatever the look is, maybe we can try to fight back against the virus by spreading something equally as powerful. What’s important to remember during healthy times and unpredictable times is that our emotions are how we communicate socially with one another.

Socially based emotions serve multiple purposes. First, our emotions signal to others what we are feeling and needing. Think of our social emotions as breadcrumb trails…

Second, our emotions signal to ourselves what we are feeling and needing. An internal signal to notice and feed what we need…

This dynamic process allows us to co-participate in each other’s feelings. It is also the way we reciprocate with others and how we convey social norms.

I wonder…

Can we spread the feeling of joy, connection, and confidence by sharing a smile with one another?

We have a special gift pre-loaded in the software of our brain called mirror neuron’s. When we are in a social setting, we can mirror the emotions people are expressing towards us as well as they can respond by mirroring our emotions back.

  • We smile – they can/will smile!
  • They smile – we can/will smile!

It’s contagious – seriously, we can spread a healthy emotional contagion…

During the current circumstances it might be easy to put your head down, turn away, cover your mouth, etc. to avoid passing anything to one another and that’s a caring and respectable act on your part.

With that said, you can also make eye contact and smile!

A smile can be seen from 1 foot, 2 feet, 3 feet, 4 feet, 5 feet, and even 6 feet away.

A smile can evoke the feeling of joy, connection, and confidence that we can be resilient during this situation and we can do this together!

I’m smiling at you right now…

How about you smile back?