A Smile -- The Greatest Gift

 

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

– Mother Teresa

I agree with Mother Teresa. A smile, especially from a loved one, is perhaps the greatest gift. Do you remember those beautiful smiles you harvested at special times in your life? Also consider how you smiled when you shared your love in a treasured moment with others. Receiving or giving a smile is priceless, and the beautiful gift doesn't cost a dime.

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”

– Lord Byron

So, what exactly is a smile?

Eric Jaffe – behavioral scientist and writer for the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Slate, and Science News – reports about the mechanics of a smile …

“A smile begins in our sensory corridors. The ear collects a whispered word. The eyes spot an old friend on the station platform. The hand feels the pressure of another hand. This emotional data funnels to the brain, exciting the left anterior temporal region in particular, then smolders to the surface of the face, where two muscles, standing at attention, are roused into action: The zygomatic major, which resides in the cheek, tugs the lips upward, and the orbicularis oculi, which encircles the eye socket, squeezes the outside corners into the shape of a crow’s foot.

“The entire event is short – typically lasting from two-thirds of a second to four seconds – and those who witness it often respond by mirroring the action, and smiling back.”

(Eric Jaffe. “The Psychological Study of Smiling.” Association For Psychological Science. February 11, 2011.)

Scientists tell us there are 19 different types of smile; however, only six occur when we’re having a good time. The rest happen when we’re in pain, embarrassed, uncomfortable, horrified or even miserable. A smile may mean contempt, anger or incredulity, that we’re lying or that we’ve lost.

But, that incredible smile that Mother Teresa describes has a name. Have you ever heard of a “Duchenne smile”?

The peculiar tango of the zygomatic major and the orbicularis oculi produces a genuine expression of positive emotion that psychologists call the “Duchenne smile,” and most consider it the sole indicator of true enjoyment.

Jaffe tells us of the Duchenne variety …

“The name is a nod to French anatomist Guillaume Duchenne, who studied emotional expression by stimulating various facial muscles with electrical currents. (The technique hurt so much, it’s been said, that Duchenne performed some of his tests on the severed heads of executed criminals.)

“In his 1862 book Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, Duchenne wrote that the zygomatic major can be willed into action, but that only the 'sweet emotions of the soul' force the orbicularis oculi to contract. 'Its inertia, in smiling,' Duchenne wrote, 'unmasks a false friend.'”

(Eric Jaffe. “The Psychological Study of Smiling.” Association For Psychological Science. February 11, 2011.)

When you see someone displaying a Duchenne smile, you naturally feel positive emotions for the person smiling. The smile is distinctive, with the mouth turning up (the zygomatic major muscle), the cheeks lifting, and the eye sockets crinkling to create crow's feet (the orbicularis oculi).

What makes a Duchenne smile so special? First, a non-Duchenne smile doesn't reach the eyes but resides only on the lips and possibly the cheeks. Second, the Duchenne smile is considered a natural smile of enjoyment. In the past, the consensus among researchers was that a true Duchenne smile couldn't be faked. More recent research calls that into question. Now, researchers spend more time trying to find out how we benefit from and how we can produce the Duchenne smile.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

– Leo Buscaglia

How powerful is this particular smile? Suffice it to say that this smile is a facial expression on steroids. It is the universal language of kindness. It's powers can vanquish kingdoms. A smile opens lasting relationships.

The intensity of a Duchenne smile can predict marital happiness, personal well-being, and even longevity. We know that variables (age, gender, culture, and social setting, among them) influence the frequency and character of a smile and what purpose these expressions play in the broader scheme of existence. In short, scientists have learned that one of humanity’s simplest expressions is beautifully complex.

“They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.”

– Emily Dickinson

And, giving or receiving a smile is good for you … literally. Smiling stimulates your brain’s reward mechanisms in a way that even chocolate, a well-regarded pleasure-inducer, cannot match.

In a study conducted in the UK (using an electromagnetic brain scan machine and heart-rate monitor to create "mood-boosting values" for various stimuli), British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars; they also found that smiling can be as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 Pounds Sterling in cash. That’s 25 grand a smile!

(Ron Gutman. “The Untapped Power Of Smiling.” Forbes. March 22, 2011.)

Have you ever thought about this? The most loving soul to ever walk the planet interestingly is not even remotely associated with smiling. Surely Jesus Christ smiled. However, depictions of Jesus sharing such an emotion are absent from the Good Book and seldom seen in religious art.

“Prince of Paradox” G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) – famed English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic – noticed it, and wrote about it briefly in his hallmark book, Orthodoxy, more than 100 years ago.

“He restrained something,” Chesterton wrote of Christ. “There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”

The brilliance of God’s smile is obscured to us. So, even the creator's smile can be something that’s veiled in this life. Jesus's own interior mirth – His sheer delight – is not in the gospels. Is is too wondrous a thing for the naked human eye to see? I don't know and I don't understand the omission, but I do know that the true smile is the most valuable expression of human-to-human love.

The Shadow of Your Smile

One day we walked along the sand
One day in early spring
You held a piper in your hand
To mend its broken wing
Now I'll remember many a day
And many a lonely mile
The echo of a piper's song
The shadow of a smile

The shadow of your smile
When you are gone
Will color all my dreams
And light the dawn
Look into my eyes
My love and see
All the lovely things
You are to me

Our wistful little star
Was far too high
A teardrop kissed your lips
And so did I
Now when I remember spring
All the joy that love can bring
I will be remembering
The shadow of your smile

– Written by Johnny Mandel and lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster