Your Brightest Lifeنموونە

Smile. Confidence will take you places.

I’m a sucker for making babies smile.

I unabashedly admit this quirk. If there’s a toddler in a cart at the checkout line, I’m the weird lady playing peekaboo until I crack through the stranger danger and tug a shy grin from their chubby cheeks. I’m inclined to believe Peter Pan: “You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.” I’m just trying to keep the fairies coming, y’all.

Last weekend I visited my extended family in New York. Lucky for me, my nine-month-old nephew was happy to oblige my obsession. At the breakfast table, on the subway, in a stroller—I’d barely have to make eye contact and smile at him and he’d erupt into the most adorable, full-face, one-tooth grin imaginable. I could not handle the cuteness. Over the course of three days, I think we populated an entire fairy village with his delicious giggles.

On the plane ride home, as I suffered through cute nephew withdrawal, I had an epiphany in seat 10F. Babies don’t hide their emotions—their reactions come pure and unfiltered. In order for my nephew to smile at me, he must have felt genuine joy, connection, trust. Why would he have felt that way? After all, I had only just met him. I didn’t look much like the others in his family. I didn’t slip him an extra teething cracker or anything. No, his response was based solely on my facial expressions: my smile, eye contact, and general warmth. He trusted me, wanted to be near me, because I engaged him with my face.

Turns out, we don’t lose our tendency to read faces when we grow up. Adults, just like babies, are drawn to people who appear confident, look them in the eyes, and, above all, smile. We trust these people and prefer to be near them because they make us feel safe.

During my layover in Dallas, I tested the theory. As I wove through oncoming travelers on my way to the next gate, I challenged myself to make eye contact with each person I passed and smile a little. Not like a Joker grin or anything—just a positive little upturn, a pleasant expression. Surprised by the findings, I tried it again as I boarded the next plane, and the following day at the grocery store. The results held consistent: people responded positively every single time. Sometimes they gave me a smile of their own, sometimes a kind word. Twice, I was rewarded with a door held open for me, and once with a complimentary sparkling water.

Man, smiling can take you places!

I suppose we view smiling people as more confident because it does, in fact, take confidence to smile. If you don’t feel confident yet, that’s okay. Keep working at it. You’ve probably heard the old saying, “Fake it ’til you make it.” I think you’ll find it proves true here.

Use the beautiful smile God gave you to spread a little more joy and light in the world. I promise, it’ll make your life brighter. And for heaven’s sake, if you see a baby, please make all manner of silly faces in my honor. Peter Pan would agree: Neverland could use more fairies.

Try your own smile experiment. For the next twenty-four hours, practice making eye contact and smiling at the people you talk to or pass by. Whether at fellow students, the clerk at the drive-through, or your own family members, see what a pleasant expression can do, for you and for them. Record your findings in a notebook or journal.

We adapted this plan from the book, “Your Brightest Life” by Jessie Minassian. Learn more here: https://amzn.to/3ZJY4PX