Smile by Almas Tauriq

I MADE MYSELF SMILE, AND I'M ACTUALLY FEELING BETTER! 😀

In a world where you can be anything, choose to be the best version of yourself.

Daniel Kahneman writes in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, simple, common gestures unconsciously influence our thoughts and feelings. In one experiment, people were asked to listen to messages through new headphones. They were told that the purpose of the experiment was to check the quality of the audio equipment, and were instructed to move their heads repeatedly to check for any disturbance in the sound. Half the participants were told to move their heads up and down (like a nod, a yes gesture), while the other half were told to shake their heads from side to side (like a no gesture). The messages they heard were news editorials.

Those who nodded tended to accept the message they heard, but those who shook their head tended to reject it. There was no awareness, just a habitual connection between an attitude of acceptance and rejection based on the body language and physical expression.

You can now see why the common advice to "act calm and kind regardless of how you feel" is very good advice: YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE REWARDED BY ACTUALLY FEELING CALM AND KIND!

Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alaihi wassalam was always cheerful and bright-faced. According to historians he always kept smiling in the face of his Companions to the extent that Abdullah ibn Al-Harith ibn Hazm said, “I have never seen anyone who smiles more than the Prophet does.”

The Messenger of Allah Sallallahu alaihi wassalam said: “You cannot satisfy people with your wealth, but satisfy them with your cheerful faces and good morals”.

Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wassalam said, “Do not disdain a good deed, (no matter how small it may seem) even if it is your meeting your brother with a cheerful face”.

Body language has become a science for improving relationships or achieving goals. The great playwright and poet, William Shakespeare said, “It’s easier to get what you want with a smile than with the tip of the sword.”

Notably, a famous Chinese proverb runs as follows, “A man without a smiling face must never open a shop. Why? Because such a man will never be able to attract others’ attention, conquer their hearts, or make them buy more!

So, all we have to do is keep a beautiful smile on our face and be positive at all times.

However, a senseless mechanical smile or false positivity is not meant here; fakeness cannot deceive anyone.

What is meant here is the genuine positive feeling that stems from the depth of one’s heart.The smile that indicates and shows one’s good character.

Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak once explained regarding good character, “It is a smiling face, doing one’s best in good, and refraining from harm”.

Almas is based in Karachi, Pakistan and is an author, Islamic Scholar and Coach, along with being a great supporter of GiFT631 and #youth4good.