Sometimes keeping a smile on the face becomes a challenge when you have progressive Neuro Muscular Disease like Muscular Dystrophy (MD). With life throwing so many curve balls everyday who can remember to smile right. However, it is my hope that once you finish reading the blog you will learn why it's good to have a smile on our face :)
The Only Genuine Smile :)
How many of us have heard of Duchenne smile? Some say, it's the only genuine smile. The Duchenne smile is named after Guillaume Duchenne, a French neurologist who studied many different expressions of emotion, focusing on the smile of pure enjoyment. Incidentally, he is also the one who first described Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. In Duchenne smile, the mouth turns up (showing the teeth), the cheeks lifts and the eye sockets crinkle to create what is called crow's feet (I prefer to call it the laugh lines on outside corners of the eyes).
Did you know that the scientists have categorized smiles into 19 different types and only Duchenne is considered to be a genuine - heart-felt smile. Scientists have identified many benefits associated with Duchenne smile. It makes one more happier and joyful but most importantly, since it comes from your heart it is shown to establish trust and connectivity with other people.
People do laugh at external stimulus like jokes or if they see something funny, but very few carry a genuine smile on their face without any reason. We can observe this fact in our own environment. How often do we or the people that we interact with genuinely smile in a day. Maybe for handful of minutes (probably less) during the entire course of the day. According to research studies, small children smile as much as 400 times per day while only 1/3 of adults smile more than 20 times a day mainly due to stress in their lives.
Why keeping a big smile is so important - specially in the current times?
Beloved Zen master and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh once observed, “Your joy can be the source of your smile, but sometimes, your smile can be the source of your joy.” Research has shown that smiling lowers the stress by changing our emotional state. Living with Muscular Dystrophy often causes a lot of stress and one of the areas where we carry stress is our jawline.
Few years back, I was listening to a spiritual discourse by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Founder of Art of Living) and I heard him say, "If you smile when everything is going great, that smile has very little value, but if you can smile through any (challenging) situation, that smile is priceless”. What he said touched my heart and I decided to do some research on the benefits of smiling. The more I dug the more I was amazed to see how smiling broadly and often provides many health benefits to our body and changes even changes our mindset. But I wondered, if it was really possible to carry a smile in the midst of challenging disease like LGMD and host of other stress causing situations. Also, what if there was nothing to smile about or you don't feel like smiling? In other words can you fake it and still see the benefits? Was it possible to make Duchenne into a "habit", so it can come on spontaneously and effortlessly regardless of what is happening to us or in our external environment.
In order to make Duchenne smiling into spontaneous habit, I decided to practice it every day like an exercise (5-10 minutes) several times during the day with commitment and perseverance. I started carrying a huge smile while taking a shower, while driving, in the bed right before going to sleep and first thing when waking up, during meditations, while watering the plants, while wearing clothes, while doing house chores, working on my computer, taking a walk at night, before I eat my food ..I guess you get the point :) Within just a couple of weeks of practicing Duchenne smiling, I noticed my facial muscles loosen up, and smiling became less of an effort.
One day (about 8 weeks into my smiling practice), I was sitting and working on my computer, when my 12 year old asked me what was so funny? I looked at him and said "nothing, I am just doing some work." That's when it hit me, smiling had finally become a habit for me as I didn't even realize I had a huge smile on my face while doing some random work. I have been practicing what I now call the smiling yoga :) for over 2 years now. In fact because of masks (due to Covid 19) I was able to further deepen my practice. I literally smile from ear to ear :) naturally and effortlessly and my facial muscles have became totally relaxed. The smile now comes on its own often for no reason even when no one is around. When I forget to smile for a while, something tells me from inside to :) It’s just like if you haven’t brushed your teeth for a few hours, you will know you missed something.
Living with Neuro Muscular Diseases often cause misery, anger and frustration which keep us from smiling naturally. By establishing a habit of spontaneous smiling, we can give ourselves access to an amazing tool that can bring us out of the negative emotions, almost instantly. The best thing about the smiling practice is that one can do it while doing any activity - like writing this blog :) My family is now used to see me doing it and don't think of me as being totally weird :) I have found that by taking slow deep long breaths in and out while practicing Duchenne smiling, makes the smile even wider and help release the stress from our forehead and jawline.
Scientists have done many studies on the benefits of Duchenne smiling. Here are just a few things that I have personally observed in my life.
It's an instant stress buster. Smiling broadly while taking 15-20 deep slow long breaths helps me to snap out of occasional negative emotions and repetitive thought patterns - almost instantly.
Helps relax jaw and facial muscles. It's shown in studies that we store a lot of stress in our jawlines.
Tense situations at home becomes lighter when one person has a genuine smile on the face :)
Makes me feel uplifted, lighter, hopeful and enthusiastic about life.
When I am in pain, I remember Sri Sri's words "If you can smile through any (challenging) situation, that smile is priceless”. This powerful message about smiling has helped me a great deal with physical pain and discomfort specially when I combine it with long deep breaths.
Doesn't let the anger and frustration stay for long as my mouth automatically goes into a smiling mode because of the habit. Sometimes it can be a problem specially when you are trying to discipline kids :)
I have noticed that, we communicate more through our presence than our words. Having a genuine smile helps other people be at ease with me quickly. If you can always smile effortlessly and broadly, people (children and adults) will feel very happy and comfortable to be around you.
Key Lesson for me: Living with LGMD is a daily challenge, but I strongly believe the choice to go through this challenge with a biggest smile is always there for us. If we can learn to go through pain and suffering with a broadest smile, that is when we realize we are bigger than everything that life puts us through.
How to practice "Smiling Yoga":
First and foremost, follow the rule "Fake it till you make it". It's OK if you can't smile without feeling happy first - just pretend and continue with this practice. Know that, only a small percentage of people in the world have a naturally smiling face - the rest can get it in just a few weeks by practicing the "smiling yoga".
Steps: It’s actually quite simple. You can do it while sitting or standing. Now warm-up you facial muscles by massaging your jaw line for a couple of minutes on both sides with your fingers (with upward to downward motion). Now gradually start smiling as wide as you can - let your teeth show as well. In the beginning, do it for 4-5 minutes at a stretch (less or more depending on how tight your facial muscles are). Gradually with practice attempt to smile from ear to ear. You can add more variations later like crinkling your nose a bit as well to smile wider. Do the best to smile as wide as you can but don't over stretch as well, I don't want you to hurt yourself (especially if you have dehydrated/dried lips). Now, while smiling, start taking long slow deep breaths in and out from your nose (it will help the facial muscles relax). You can even close your eyes (if not doing anything important) while practicing. If your Jaw starts to hurt a bit, take a break and continue again. The target is to get to 1 hour or more of this practice everyday (Not at one stretch - otherwise you will have a face like Joker in Batman movies :) You can break it down to different times of the day. If you get some funny comments from the family - just smile a bit more at them :)
Best time to practice: Pretty much anytime is a good time to practice. You can do it while working on the computer, lying in the bed, doing household work, watching TV, driving, gardening etc. Feel free to involve your kids and spouse, friends and outlaws - I mean in-laws :) in this exercise as well.
Some very interesting scientific facts about smiling:
Do you know that it's in our very nature to have a gentle smile on our face. In fact, it has been shown by 3-D ultrasound technology, the baby starts smiling in the mother's womb.
Have you noticed that smiling is infectious :) when we around happy and smiling people, we also somehow get a smile on our face. In a Swedish study, researchers found that it’s very difficult to frown when you’re looking at someone who is smiling.
It is proven that establishing a habit of smiling can help bring down the blood pressure naturally. The reason for this is very simple. Smiling reduces stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and help increase the level of mood-enhancing chemicals such as endorphins.
Biggest Takeaway: You don't have to first feel good before you start smiling easily and freely. In fact, the act of smiling can actually create more enjoyment and good feelings inside of you.
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