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Living in this country and all its BS I'm super suspicious of anyone who has happy all the time. What the hell in this country is there to smile about 24/7?
You need better perspective, my friend.
If you win the birth lottery and are born here and have a home and food...you're already winning. And you'll find me smiling all the time bc I am super grateful and it makes me happy.
Now I may randomly smile, but usually my face mirrors my emotions (unless contraindicated in a professional setting).
As for the op, if there can be resting bi***y face, why can't there be resting happy face?
I never smile. No photograph exists of me smiling. I laugh a lot, but I never smile. I'm always amazed that people can turn a smile on and off. When I try it, it seems so forced, it is embarrassing even when I'm alone.
Guess you never heard the expression "laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone".
Quote:
Originally Posted by cremebrulee
you have got to be kidding, right?
OP, smile your heart out, don't listen to these silly people.
My God....to actually label a person b/c they smile?
maybe your faces normal resting position isn't a smile, but that isn't true for everyone...
I'm sorry, I just cannot believe all the negative responses to the OP....
It isn't just the smile. It is the blank stare that sometimes, not always, goes with it. I knew some people wouldn't know what I was talking about. Judging from my rep points, I'm not the only one who sees it. It isn't everyone who smiles a lot, just some people.
I rarely smile and have been generally unhappy since high school with a few exceptions. I do think I'd meet more people if I smile more, but I have to consciously make myself do it, and usually I'm so deep in thought about something (mostly worried) that I don't do it. I have to be on vacation or be in love to really smile. Everyday life just drains me.
It depends on the context. If you are smiling and talking in a happy way when someone has told you their dog just died, yes I would find that disturbing. I actually know someone who does this.
Say, "I'm Lazy. It takes more muscles to frown than to smile, so I smile. A smile does not have to mean something. I may just feel delight in something others don't see or perceive".
Sometimes I smile when an inadvertent thought or something ironic is observed, but maybe no one else notices, and it may appear silly, other times I may be in my default non-plussed facial expression or don't f with me look - it tends to serve me well in most environments. I will admit there are 'types' of smile that would be disconcerting if I noticed them all the time on another person. The psycho smile, a la , Jack Nicholson's "Heres' Johnny!" in The Shining, or the idiot smile like someone who is somehow disabled, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame when Esmeralda shows him kindness and gives him water, to which he replies glowingly in his slurred speech, "She gave me water, she gave me water, she did, she did!"
Be aware that frequent smiling for no reason has different cultural perceptions. In particular, you may be perceived as mentally disabled if you do so too frequently and in unusual social environments, say, a funeral or some serious oriented occasion. People in cultures that tend to be serious, find those smiling with no reason to be considered a bit daft. Note, this could be advantageous in certain situations if that is a goal. (Purposeful underestimation of mental capacity) And as KathrynAragon pointed out a few posts prior there's a few different facial combinations which can in some instances be just as discomforting depending on the situation.
I used to get asked that, too sometimes. Life caught up with me and after alot of stuff happened, I really don't smile nearly as much as I used to. It is a real shame that sometimes smiles raise suspicions......
OP, I think it is great that you are always smiling. You must help bring so many smiles to other people. I know sometimes when I am having a yucky day, someone will approach me with a big smile on their face and I cannot help it, I have to smile, too. It automatically cheers me up and takes my mind off of whatever cra* I am dealing with--even if for a short while.
So read the above again, multiply it many many times over and focus on the fact that you are spreading cheer and hope and giving so many people a reason to smile.....even those who feel like they have no reason to.
And to the people who ask you why you're smiling you can say, "because I feel like it" with an even bigger smile.
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I have a dry sense of humor sometimes and people don't understand that.
