6 BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The benefits of laughing and smiling are both physical and mental and occur at work, in general life, and in children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. The smile is a communicative facial gesture that consists of raising the ends of the mouth slightly, as if you were laughing but without making noise.

Through the smile you show and transmit many feelings, emotions and attitudes, such as: joy, happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, well-being, trust, gratitude, predisposition towards others…

According to the Spanish philosopher and pedagogue José Antonio Marina, “the smile is an expressive sign of well-being that encourages sociability and favors communication between people (…). This gesture shows that the other person is kindly welcomed and that there is a willingness to communicate ”.

Within what is the smile we can find many different types, for example the genuine smile, the false smile, the false smile, the cruel smile, the mocking smile, the fearful, the sad, the distant…

What is the smile?

The smile is a basic expression in the human being common to all cultures and societies, that is, the smile is a universal gesture that all human beings use to express the same: joy, happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment, well-being…

Paul Ekman contributed to this discovery by showing that there were African tribes who smiled despite never having had contact with the Western world, and did so for reasons very similar to those of the rest of the world's population.

Through advanced 3D technology, it has been seen how developing fetuses smile in the womb, and this activity is maintained when they are born, especially while they sleep, at which time more smiles are produced in newborns.

Babies who are born blind are also known to smile when they hear other people's voices, so it can be said that the ability to smile is innate.

Types of smiles

How many smiles can you identify in yourself? And in the others?

According to psychologist Paul Ekman, an expert in the study of emotions and facial expressions, there are 18 different types of smiles that arise from the combination of 15 facial muscles.

Throughout this article I am going to refer to the genuine smile, also called the Duchenne smile, that is, the one that appears on your face in a spontaneous, sincere and natural way. Of all the smiles, this is the most powerful.

The difference between a genuine smile and a smile that is not, is that in the first the extremities of the mouth are raised along with the cheeks and the famous crow's feet are marked, while in the second only the muscles of the mouth.

This is the key to differentiate when someone is smiling at you sincerely and when they are not.

6 Health benefits of smiling

1. Smiling makes you happier

When you smile, your brain releases endorphins, which are natural opioid substances produced by the Central Nervous System, which stimulate the brain's pleasure centers and circulate through your body producing a series of benefits:

• They act as a natural analgesic reducing body pain
• Reduce stress level
• Strengthen the Immune System
• They help in the recovery of many diseases, both physical and mental illnesses
• They increase the feeling of pleasure and well-being
• They improve the mood
• And increase the level of happiness

Endorphins are released when you exercise, when you have sex, when you get a massage, when you get a hug, when you sunbathe, when you eat chocolate, when you listen to music, when you laugh and, of course, when you smile.

In many cases, the smile is the result of a previous state of well-being and happiness, that is, you feel good, you are happy, you smile and your brain rewards you for it by producing substances that make you even happier.

But other times you are down, listless, sad… and someone or something makes you smile. Your brain will reward you in the same way as in the previous case, that is, the positive effects of smiling are the same regardless of whether you are happy or sad.

The same happens when you fake a smile, since the brain is not able to distinguish if said smile is natural or forced, so it releases endorphins in both cases.

As you can see, the act of smiling causes your brain to release endorphins that make you happier, regardless of whether you smile when you are sad or when you are happy or whether you smile naturally or in a forced way.

Smiling makes you happier.

2. Makes you feel better

Smiling often has many beneficial effects that together make you feel good, feel better compared to those who do not smile as often.

Some of those beneficial effects are:

• Lowers blood pressure, reducing the chances of you having a heart attack or other cardiovascular problems
• Prevents depression and sadness
• Generates positive and pleasant moods
• It favors internal homeostasis, that is, the internal balance of your body
• Contribute to your health, both physical and mental
• Improve your perception of your health
• Makes you sleep better
• Relax muscles
• Reduces tension
• Exercise the body
• Etc.

It could be said that the smile is a natural medicine that improves health, and that is what Charles Darwin already said: "Smiling makes us feel better."

3. Increases life expectancy

In 2010, a study was conducted at Wayne State University in Michigan, United States, the objective of which was to discover whether the width of a person's smile is related to the number of years they live.

The study consisted of analyzing photographs of players from major American basketball leagues prior to the 1950s along with their vital data. The data they obtained was that the players who smiled in the photos lived an average of 80 years and those who did not live a lower average of 72.9 years.

Therefore, the researchers concluded that the breadth of a person's smile can determine the number of years they will live.

Although the results of this study have confirmed the researchers' hypothesis, this does not mean that because a person smiles more widely or more often, they will live longer without a doubt.

But the fact of smiling along with all the benefits that derive from this act and that you have seen before (reduces the level of stress, improves the immune system, prevents depression…) can contribute to living longer, with better health and happier.

4. Improve social relationships

When you smile, you seem a closer, accessible, sociable, extrovert, friendly, reliable, generous, educated, positive person… which helps you to empathize, to relate more easily with others and to improve established ties.

And is that the smile is contagious, so if you smile at someone, it is most likely that that person will smile back, either consciously or unconsciously, which helps you get closer to her.

As Goleman said: "Laughter can be the shortest distance between two brains, causing an unstoppable contagion that establishes an immediate social bond."

This contagion is produced by the effect of mirror neurons, which are the cause that when observing a gesture or a behavior you imitate it immediately.

When you smile at a person and they respond with another smile, you are causing positive changes in their emotional state, as we have seen before when talking about endorphins and the power that a smile has to make someone feel better.

Throughout history there have been many studies and research on smiling and social relationships. One of them revealed that people trust a stranger more if he smiles at us than if he keeps his face serious.

Another study that was carried out at Harvard University showed that if a person is happy, there is a 25% more probability that the people around them will catch their mood.

An investigation that was carried out in Sweden revealed what I have already told you in this section, that when you see a person smiling, you tend to smile too and it is more difficult for you to frown or show angry gestures.

Smiles make it easier to start a conversation or a relationship with someone you don't know, that you seem more empathetic and close, that relationships are more satisfying and pleasant, that you provoke positive feelings in others…

There is a Tibetan saying that sums up very well what I just told you, and it goes like this: "when you smile at life, half the smile is for your face and the other half for the other person's face."

Smiling brings you closer to others.

5. Helps you achieve your goals

When you smile, the people around you perceive you as someone who is sure of yourself, competent, capable of dealing with problems and with good self-esteem, which can help you achieve those goals that you set for yourself.

For example, if you are a salesperson and you have to sell a product, the fact of smiling makes the customer more predisposed to listen to what you want to tell them. A smile can also help you if you have a job interview, if you have to go to the bank to ask for a loan, if you have to ask someone for a favor…

The act of smiling also helps when it comes to flirting, since people who smile convey greater self-confidence and are perceived as more attractive compared to those who do not.

And it is that the smile attracts, which multiplies the possibilities of achieving your goals when it comes to convincing someone.

Smiling helps you achieve your goals.

6. Reduce stress level

As you already know, when you smile your brain releases a series of very beneficial substances for your body.

Some of these substances, such as endorphins, improve mood and contribute to the decrease of hormones related to stress, such as cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, producing a decrease in the level of stress in the person. Smiling is a very effective anti-stress mechanism.

Fun facts about the smile

The importance of smiling is such that since 1999 there has been World Smile Day, which is celebrated on the first Friday in October, and for several years the UN has made rankings to measure the level of happiness.

In the last ranking, Spain is in position number 36 out of a total of 158 countries. In the first place is Switzerland. If we talk about the number of smiles emitted by country, the order changes. The United States is the one that smiles the most and Russia the least.

Regarding sex, women smile more often than men.

33% of adults smile more than twenty times a day, while 14% do so less than five times. This number is very low compared to children, who smile an average of 400 times a day.

As you can see, the number of times a person smiles per day decreases in parallel with their growth, that is, the older you are, the less you smile.

A recent study has shown that people who inject botulinum substances around their eyes are no longer able to smile in a genuine way, so they are more likely to become depressed.

On the contrary, those people who inject these substances into their forehead to eliminate wrinkles that form in that area, tend to be happier because they have lost the ability to frown.

References

1. Argyle, M. (2013). The Psychology of Happiness. (2 ^nd edition). London: Routledge.
2. Craig, GJ Baucum, D. (2001). Psychological development. Mexico: Pearson Education.
3. Davis, JI Senghas, A. Ochsner, KN (2009). How Does Facial Feedback Modulate Emotional Experience? Journal of Research in Personality, 43 (5), 822–829.
4. Krishna, A. (2011). An integrative review of sensory marketing: Engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology.
5. Strack, F. Martin, LL Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (5), 768-777.