Smile for yourself, but mostly for others

Coming from a communist country I was always circumspect of people who were smiling all the time.

Life is hard and how can you be so radiant, how come events and people and years of living have been giving you that wide smile you brandish like in advertisements? Smiling was a proclamation of happiness in a regime known for oppressing and regimenting people in an universal mold. Laughing was questionable and at a certain point viewed as an act of opposition, underground fight.

Then you read on many studies about the benefice of just "faking-till-you-making" - physiology winning over your mind and creating an overall well-being state.

I was told by my mother that I was a curious kid, whenever it happened to be among people, looking intensely and scanning their gestures, talks and faces. I was probably absorbing life in its manifestation, interested to see how we interact, how we react, looking for fragments of life in people's faces.

For many reasons I grew up without a smile on my face. I was not frowning but was rather serious and from time to time laughing or smiling. Then at some moment (teenager years and later) I realized that smiling is an approval, a nod to something happening in your life or a memory coming juxtaposed to present life.

I learned to smile to strangers in a "good-for-you" way, approving and admiring their courage, their act in the moment. Recently I have tried to have a beginning of a smile in a "enjoy your life" way, most of the time, for me.

Last year I climbed a few peaks in Corsica and after a steep ascent (1000 meters in altitude) we were resting and taking pictures. There is a "inner-peace" smile I have in the pictures, accepting life as it is and enjoying moments with people around you. My kid stopped on the trail and declared I cannot go anymore. We overcame that stumble, and found the motivation for many more climbs afterwards. I was smiling for that achievement, too.

I had witnessed the benefit of smiling in many instances when the communication barriers are there.

I melted to the smile of my kid and I was intoxicated with her laughter.

I realized that if you don't smile for yourself at least do it for people around you, lighten up their day and give them a boost - they might need it more than you.

I am learning from strangers in my life, thank you.

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