happiness and smiling does the body good!

Smile may be secret of success
ANGUS HOWARTH

BEING blessed with a smile and a consistently happy outlook may be more of a key to success than money or power according to the latest research.

People like television presenters Lorraine Kelly or Carol Smillie, may owe their fame and fortune as much to their tendency to smile and look on the bright side as their hard work and good contacts, say psychologists.


And the famously cheerful Dalai Lama, who wrote a book entitled The Art of Happiness, has been vindicated in his much quoted view that "the purpose of human life is happiness".

Many people assume that success in itself - getting the best job, hooking up with the perfect partner and raking in the cash - is the key to being happy in life.

But psychologists in the United States say that if you want to be successful you might just have to put on a happy face first.

The researchers from the Universities of California, Missouri and Illinois examined the connections between desirable characteristics, life successes and well-being in more than 275,000 people.

They found that it was happy individuals who were predisposed to seek out and undertake new goals in life leading to success, which also reinforced their already positive emotions.

Writing in Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association, they concluded that "chronically happy people" were more successful across many areas of life than less happy people.

Lead researcher Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky said they found that happy people were more likely to achieve "favourable life circumstances".

"This may be because happy people frequently experience positive moods and these positive moods prompt them to be more likely to work actively toward new goals and build new resources," she said.

"When people feel happy, they tend to feel confident, optimistic and energetic and others find them likeable and sociable. Happy people are thus able to benefit from these perceptions," she added.

The researchers found that they all suggested that happiness does lead to behaviour that often produces further success in work, relationships and health.

The success resulted, in part, from the person's positive outlook. But happy people could also be sad - the researchers said that this group was capable of experiencing sadness and negative emotions.

They said this was a healthy response."Much of the previous research on happiness presupposed that happiness followed from success and accomplishments in life. We found that this isn't always true."

Dr Lyubomirsky added: "Our review provides strong support that happiness, in many cases, leads to successful outcomes, rather than merely following from them. And happy individuals are more likely than their less happy peers to have fulfilling marriages and relationships, high incomes, superior work performance, community involvement, robust health and even a long life."

source: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=2428112005

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"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people."