How to Smile Every Day

I’m feeling a little down today and kind of have been for the last couple of days, which is so odd because I’ve been in the over-the-top-super Christmas spirit before I became blue. Then things happened, life happened, I overdrafted my account, ordered the wrong item for a Christmas gift, got a weird text from an ex-girlfriend and all of that. Every single problem, no matter how big it might seem to me, is nothing. We all know what has happened, what’s going on with our country – we all know. It’s hard to continually try to think, “My problems are bad, but at least…” but that’s the perspective we all kind of need to have right now. HAVE I TOTALLY BUMMED YOU OUT YET?

Don’t worry, I’m about to flip the switch and turn all of our bummers into big smiles and loud laughs. Because you know what we need to do each day? Smile. Laugh. I mean, if you’re crazy – and I assume you are if you use the phrase “ROFL” (is this really considered a phrase?) – then I’m about to give you a guide to SHGL everyday – that means “Smile Hard Giggle Lots“; I just made it up. I’m a genius. And if you need letter phrases to get you going, then hopefully I’ve just RYSO (rocked your socks off, I’m on a roll!). Let’s cut the small talk and get to the point of all this: Things That Will Make You Smile Every Day. We all need that, and we could all use a little help getting our grin on at times. Here we go:

WATCH CAT VIDEOS

This one might be a little obvious, but taking Tylenol when you have a headache is a little obvious, as well. Consider cat videos the Tylenol to your headache – that represents happiness. (Did I just blow your minds?) No matter what is going on in your life, if you watch cat videos, all will be forgotten momentarily and you will smile hard.

GO FOR A WALK

This is one is tough, because honestly sometimes you just don’t feel like it. But I can’t stress enough how much forcing yourself to do this will help. I’m not talking about an exercise walk; I’m talking about a for you walk. Around the block, through the city streets, whatever. Just get out and walk around for 30 minutes. You will feel refreshed and it will also help you clear your mind.

TURN UP THE MUSIC

To me, nothing makes me feel better than singing loudly. I’m not a good singer and I usually don’t know the words, but if I put on Bruno Mars‘ “Locked Out Of Heaven”, plug in my earphones and just sing along… I mean, it gives me chills just thinking about it. If there is one guarantee in this entire article, it’s that singing along to an upbeat, fun track will make you feel so so good.

PLAY

This is directed to those with pets, nieces, nephews, kids or just young things that will play with you. Not play a game online or on your computer, I mean play, the old school real play that people seem to forget about. Chase your dog, throw things for him to chase, chase after him/her. Hit your niece with a pillow and then chase after her. Stop being a player hater and have some fun.

COOK

There’s a big difference between cooking for family or yourself because you need to eat and make dinner and cooking for no reason whatsoever. Make brownies or cookies or cupcakes. Or get on Pinterest and find a crazy recipe, but get in the kitchen and cook and bake for yourself. Cook for fun. Cooking is so much fun, unless you’re slaving in the kitchen for others. Forget the others and do it for you.

USE A PEN

This might sound crazy, but get some stationary out or a notepad and write some notes. Nothing important; you don’t need to describe everything that’s going on in your life, just simply write a little message, put it in an envelope and send it out. It’s weird how such simple thing can make you feel so good. Just knowing a friend or family member will get an actual card for no reason in the mail with actual handwriting specifically written for them will make you big time happy, because you know you will be bringing a smile to someone else’s face and that is the best kind of smile you can give yourself.

READ TRASH

Read trash/gossip magazines because it will make you forget about everything else going on in your life and the world. Your worries will change from fiscal cliff to Kim Kardashian, and that kind of worry is something to smile about. If you don’t have subscriptions to magazines, then get online and catch up on all the celebrity goodness and you will find yourself Googling away and ending up on a page about who Emma Stone is dating, then reading the wiki of Paul Feig. Trust me, this is fun and you will get caught up in pointless trash that will make you smile.

DANCE

That’s all. Dance. Bounce around, jump around and dammit, just dance!

Image via ShutterStock.

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