How many muscles does it take to smile?

You’ve probably heard that it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. According to this article, that’s not quite true. If you’re going for the lowest common denominator smile – a barely recognizable and minimum effort smile – one that you’d give to your preacher at his third dad joke in five minutes… you may be surprised to learn that you’re exerting yourself more to do that than to mildly frown in disapproval – “10 muscles to smile, and six muscles to frown.”¹

Most of the time, however, it takes more effort to frown.

Which seems evident in our society these days. Everyone is frowning. People’s faces should have abs – six pack faces.

I’ve heard it called RBF – resting bitchy face. It’s the look of sheer animosity and hatred for small animals that seems to descend on your face without your awareness as you read, work on your computer or are engaged mentally for a period of time.

It would be odd, I think, for such moments instead to result in a widely stretched Joker face. Holy frown, Batman! I think an RBF would be preferable to that.

Time to smile

That’s why you’re needed. What would it look like for you to be a Stealth Ninja Smile Maker? A Mouth Corner Raiser? A Smile Magician? Whatever you call it (leave your label in the comments), embrace the mission of Smile.

When I think of things that seem to provoke a smile, I think of babies and little kids (at their best). Sometimes, I confess, I smile at parents struggling with defiant kids – probably smiling in relief that I’m past that stage. I was at a restaurant recently, waiting on our orders in a chair near the register. A family was placing their order at the counter. Before I knew it, I was being interrogated by their children (their parents didn’t notice). A 4-5 year old and a 3-4 year old began plying me with questions.

“What are you doing here?”

“What are you going to eat?”

“Do you like my helicopter?” (the little boy had a bag full of toys, and began to take them out one at a time to show me)

“I can do somersaults. Do you want to see?”

The dad turned around and quickly intervened, apologizing with, “I’m sorry they’re disturbing you. They’re not usually so ‘friendly’” with people.”

I assured him that I’d enjoyed the conversation. Internally, I was celebrating because I’ve had a knack in the past of involuntarily making kids cry. I haven no idea why. But this moment seemed to be another milestone in my journey of kids suddenly liking me.

As they walked to their table (the little girl looked back and waved vigorously at me), I realized I was… smiling. Beaming, actually.

And that lift of my mouth corners seemed to be connected to tendons that also pulled the lever on my heart heater. It was just a warm moment.

So whether it’s kids or puppies or memes or unboxing your Amazon order, we all know the experience of finding ourselves unconsciously smiling in response to life. I’d like to encourage you today to be someone’s smile stimulus.

Compliment someone. Tell a dad joke (they will be required to use 10 muscles). Give a gift. Encourage someone.

Better yet, leave a smile bomb.

What in the world is a smile bomb? It’s when you leave something somewhere that will provoke a smile in someone later. You can do this all kinds of ways. Write something compelling and post it. Paint something beautiful and share it. Make a movie that inspires. Take a picture that will cheer someone. (Have you ever noticed that when people look at pictures of themselves laughing that they involuntarily smile?)

These are smile bombs.

Prepare it. Light the fuse. And step away. Let the delight explode later. You don’t have to see it. It’s worth giving someone a smile anonymously. It’s like leaving a joy landmine for the soul

One strange smile-inducing mirth mine is the painted rock. I have no idea who does these things, but I’ve found a few.

On occasion, these provoke a smile for me. More often, to be honest, I’m left wondering who came up with the whole inspirational rock routine? Is it because they were no longer good pets that these rocks were painted up and then abandoned in the wild?

Seeing more of these would definitely make me smile though…

Unless it blinked. Could you imagine seeing rocks with little eyeballs along your walk and then look back and seeing them watching you??? (Ok, sorry, I digress. Don’t stone me… See, there goes your 10 facial muscles again! You’re welcome.)

Answer the call

Let someone’s RBF today be your reminder to be a smile stimulus. Be a smile magician. Whether you’re overt or stealthy, give people’s faces a rest from frowning, and reveal their smiles. They’ll be glad you did.

1. How Many Muscles Does It Take to Smile? by Tom Scheve on HowStuffWorks, April 8, 2021[↩]