when you view a person smiling, you actually feel rewarded.

When you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you

Contagious smiling (and frowning and scowling and so on) is the basis of reading others' emotions and registering how you should, in turn, feel.

We tend to mimic the smiles or frowns of others because it helps us better understand what other people are feeling, allowing us to respond appropriately.

Evidence shows that an instinct for facial mimicry allows us to empathize with and even experience other people's feelings.

“Facial mimicry certainly plays some role, and perhaps a key role, in understanding other people’s emotional states,” Dr. Kevin Ochsner

A person's ability to recognize and "share" others' emotions can be inhibited when they can't mimic faces, even from something as simple as long-term pacifier use.

you mimic their expression unconsciously, which then tells your brain what to feel. All this happens in a few hundred milliseconds.

We are unconsciously learning things by what we see and that's why infants mimic their parents behavior. When they smile to them, they smile back.

Each time you smile, you throw a little feel-good party in your brain. The act of smiling activates neural messaging that benefits your health and happiness.

smiling activates the release of neuropeptides that work toward fighting off stress.

the serotonin release brought on by your smile serves as an anti-depressant/mood lifter.

When you smile,you are creating a symbiotic relationship that allows both of you to release feel-good chemicals in your brain, activate reward centers, make you both more attractive, and increase the chances of you both living longer, healthier lives.

First stage: You see an expressive face You need to know what the expression means so you can react effectively.

Second stage: You simulate the facial expression Simulation uses the same areas of your brain that cause your facial expressions- it may therefore cause you to mimic the expression.

Third stage: The simulation tells you how it feels to make that expression The context or your knowledge about the expresser may have an influence.

This quick, automatic, and unconscious process allows you to connect the subtle emotion signals of others to your own emotion experiences.

Smiling makes us happier Smiling triggers a reduction in stress-enhancing hormones and increases the production of mood-enhancing hormones.

Even forcing a “fake” smile when you’re not truly feeling it has been shown to reduce stress and result in more positive feelings.

Genuine smiles might help people see eye-to-eye during interactions. People who often make genuine smiles may have an easier time convincing others to adopt their goals.

The world is simply a better place when you smile.

It's easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

People make me feel like I have a problem because I haven't had a kid yet.

People are so shocked when they find... out I am Protestant. I am Presbyterian. And I go to church, and I love God, and I love my church.

The worst deluded are the self deluded.

'Death Sentence' really is a throwback to the '70s style revenge drama with moments of action. It's like a contemporary 'Death Wish' with a much more thriller style storyline, but the action scenes I shot very much in the style of '70s films like 'The French Connection.'

The idea of investing in the positivity of employees is often low down on companies' priority lists.

They are not your players, they are loaned from the club. You just wheel them out for a game for England.

I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Taking time to sit back and watch and think about what you've seen is important. Traveling did a great deal to me. I found that when I travel and just sit in the corner and watch, a million ideas come to me.

My work schedule has changed over the years. The one constant is, when at work on a novel, I try to work seven days a week, so as not to lose touch with that world. Within that, I'm flexible on hours and output.

When evil acts in the world it always manages to find instruments who believe that what they do is not evil but honorable.

A sweet lie is more gracious for us than a virulent but real truth.

Instead of being intimidated by the limitations, be inspired to find new ways around them.

I personally have been drawn to female roles who are incredibly strong; females who are dominant and know their own mind; who are feisty in their own way without being annoying. I like it when she has a dark side, but she also has a playful side.

I hate jeans for no reason.

Without hunting there would be no conservation without conservation there would be no wildlife.

When I was eight, I would look at the cover of the 'Ghost Rider' comic book in my little home in Long Beach, California, and I couldn't get my head around how something that scary could also be good. To me it was my first philosophical awakening - 'How is this possible, this duality?'

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes / I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again.

Sectarian politics gets votes in Iraq. But sectarian government fails in Iraq.

I like to look for patterns in science and life. It's what I do.

Music is not just a part of my everday life, I'm surrounded by it every minute.

Originality is the art of concealing your sources

It's always nice to remember that there was a time when I loved something that I didn't know much about; it just reached my ears and moved me.

I am a private human.