#ygkChallenge: Smile!
Welcome to Kingstonist’s weekly challenge, dare, resolution or whatever you prefer to call it. Each week we establish a new and ambitious community goal, encouraging our readers, followers, friends and families to step out of their comfort zones and do something great, and hopefully a little out of the ordinary. Consider this your official and personal invitation to join us in completing a small but meaningful achievement. By taking part in this community-wide initiative, we hope to make Kingston a slightly better place to live, work and play. And of course, we also hope that you will feel proud of your contribution and achievement.
This week’s challenge encourages you to:
Share your smile. One of the simple social pleasures of life occurs when you smile at someone and they smile back. The act of smiling is a simple way to make yourself and those around you feel good. Smiling can reduce stress, it tells others you are friendly and approachable and it just makes you and those around you feel good. Did you know that children smile on average 400 times a day whereas adults smile only 40-50 times per day? This is why most of us feel good when we’re around children. Another interesting point about smiling is known as the baseball card study. Players who smiled the biggest on their baseball cards in 1927 were found to have lived on average, 7 years longer than those who smiled less or not at all. Of course this isn’t the most scientific experiment but it doesn’t hurt to try! All in all, smiling makes us all feel good, it breeds trust and happiness and probably does help you live longer because of those things. So, this week, share your smile. Smile at your friends, your family and most importantly, smile at a stranger. Spread some joy.
Sign up and commit to completing this week’s challenge by commenting below with an “I’m in“, “challenge accepted“, “en garde” or something along those lines. Further, help us spread the word via Twitter and Facebook by using the hashtag: #ygkchallenge. As you work towards completing this week’s task, please feel free to lend others a helping hand by providing tips on how you achieved success.
Thanks to Theen for today’s photo.