Happiness - does smiling help?

So here we go...

A certain famous self-help guru believes strongly in the physicality of mood. To break that down for you a little, the more physical we are, the more we move, the better we feel.

This makes perfect sense to me. For example, have you ever said to anyone that if you sit down you feel tired? Ever been in a situation where the adrenaline has been pumping and then you sit down and find you just don't want to get up?

That is the physical aspect of mood inducement.

So when I see a report like the one in my last post, I get excited. I know that if we smile we feel happy. What I don't know is why.

The Worldwide Happiness Project is aimed at finding out how to get people more fulfilled with their lives. Fulfillment, I believe, brings happiness. Yet, a smile makes us happy? I don't think so.

I'm guessing we think it does because we have been conditioned to feel happy when we smile. The simple act of moving our muscles in our faces makes us 'feel' happy.

Or does it?

I challenge that it doesn't. And that is why I was excited to stumble upon that report. Like the people towards the end of the report who discussed how awful forced smiling is (just try doing it for a photo you don't want to be in), I know that smiling has absolutely nothing to do with fulfillment, which as I have explained, is what makes me happy.

So we need to get fulfilled. And we need to get away from society's rules about happiness.

Because, as we all know, those who follow rules tend to get miserable pretty quick.

One step closer then, towards understanding how to be happy...

(And I'm serious, smiling is not the answer).