If you set the goal to accomplish everything with a smile, there are some definite health benefits in it for you. Just being happy and having a great attitude can go a long way to keeping a smile on your face, but there are some choices and activities that make it even easier to smile. The good news is that these activities are simple and involve things like positive thinking and cute puppies.

1. Embrace Positivity

Positivity is a popular word right now. Whether we talk about body positivity or just general positivity, it’s an attitude that can make you healthy and successful. Positivity can also help you smile. Rather than enforcing good behaviors with fear of consequences or negativity, instead focus on the benefits or the good feelings that hard work creates within you. Take a moment in the day to meditate and ponder on the wonderful parts of everything that happens in a day.  

2. Spend Time with Animals

In the past decade or so, science has shown that interacting with animals causes positive, physical results. As a result, animals can also help you smile more. Whether that means simply watching YouTube videos of kittens falling off couches or purchasing a furry companion of your own, find time to enjoy the simplicity and pure joy of animals. If you’re serious about taking care of a pet, consider these sweet, healthy puppies found at https://uptownpuppies.com/ . Taking care of a pet can bring feelings of purpose and fulfillment.

3. Build Good Relationships

Building good relationships and smiling go together. If you smile, you’re more likely to make friends. If you have friends, you’re more likely to smile. Regardless, of where you’re at in that cycle, smiling can always help. Tell jokes, give compliments, and say hello to people you don’t know. Sometimes, people don’t smile back, but it always helps to try. Whether you want to develop stronger relationships with the people or animals around you, there are measurable health benefits from positive connections with others.

4. Exercise Your Face

If the primary reason you don’t smile is that it’s hard to smile for long amounts of time, consider exercising your face. There are a couple of benefits to facial exercises. First, facial exercises including smiling possibly make you look years younger. Also, facial exercises can be highly entertaining. Perform facial exercises in front of the mirror and remind yourself not to take life too seriously but rather to enjoy life as it happens.

5. Keep a Smile Journal

If something makes you smile in the day, write it down! Check out Etsy for some cute journals and get writing. If you’re too busy in a day to pull out an actual journal, consider taking notes on your phone and writing the moments you smiled down at the end of the day. Plan opportunities to smile in the morning and write down what happened afterward to determine your success rate. Save your smile journal for when things get difficult so that you can reflect on all the good in your life and smile again.

6. Serve People around You

One of the best ways to put a smile on someone else’s face and your own is to perform simple acts of service. It doesn’t matter if you know who you’re serving or not. Simply leave kind notes somewhere, prepare lunch for someone, or give a close friend something you know they’d love. Spread the smiles around. Check out justserve.org to find opportunities to help in your community or ask local congregations and clubs if they know of anything you can do to help.

Whether you decide to spend time with adorable puppies or to help those around you, there are plenty of opportunities in life for you to smile. The most important thing is that you seek these opportunities out, think positive thoughts, and share that positivity with everyone.