Every year on the first Friday of October, the world comes together to celebrate World Smile Day, with the overall message of the event to ‘Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile.”
The iconic smiley face was created in 1963 by Massachusetts commercial artist, Harvey Ball. After he died in 2001, the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation was created to honour his name and memory, and it continues to be the official sponsor of World Smile Day every year. The first Smile Day was held in 1999 and has been an event celebrated around the globe ever since.
As we live such busy lives, we can often lose sight of the bigger picture and why it’s so important to keep a positive mind. But did you know just how awesome smiling is to our health? If you don’t believe us… Smiling:
- Is contagious
- Releases endorphins
- Strengthens your immune system
- Makes you appear more attractive (and approachable)
- Lowers stress and anxiety
- That’s just the start… 🙂
So while we celebrate World Smile Day, what small acts of kindness are you going to do today? Here are some of our ideas on how to make other people smile…
- Find opportunities to give compliments
- Donate to a charity supporting homeless individuals in your local area
- Tell a funny joke
- Send someone a gift
- Feed your funny (create a feel-good playlist of funny videos on YouTube and share them with others. Only choose to share videos that you genuinely think they’ll laugh out loud at, and until their belly hurts!)
- Offer your help and support (like helping to reduce someone’s workload)
- Encourage a young person’s dream (when asking them what they want to be when they grow up)
- Say ‘thank you’ to someone who has made a difference (even if that’s just to someone who’s opened a door for you…)
If you use any of these acts of kindness today, we’d love to hear about your experience! Just send us a Tweet at @PersonalPaycare (individuals) or @Paycare (businesses), or share the blog on social media using the icons below.
Until next time…