Are you looking for how to decrease stress? How about just grin and bear it? Is this silly or is there actually a scientific support for this?
A new soon to be published study in Psychological Science shows that smiling during times of stress helps you to recover better from a stressful event. As Tara Kraft, one of the study’s researchers, said she wanted to see if the old expression “grin and bear it” had any scientific basis.
How to Decrease Stress: Smile. Really?
Let me share what they found.
In the study, the researchers asked 169 volunteers from a university in the Midwest to hold one of two smiles—a traditional smile or a closed mouth smile—while they performed stressful activities. During these activities, they monitored the participants’ heart rates. They also had some of the participants use chopsticks in their mouths to force a smile.
What the researchers found is that the participants with either the traditional or closed mouth smiles had lower recovery heart rates after stressful activities compared to those who didn’t smile. Even those who had a smile forced by chopsticks had lower recovery heart rates as well.
This means smiling is good for how to decrease stress to the body. So the expression is not just a saying, it’s actually helpful!
With chronic stress being one of the causes of hormonal imbalance, weight gain and other health conditions, we could all use another simple way to deal with stress. This is good to add to the list of how to decrease stress naturally.
So, next time you are in a stressful situation, smile, and even if you don’t feel like it, put on a happy face or even get a cbd liquid to help you calm down a bit. You’ll feel better. In terms of how to decrease stress, smiling and taking slow deep breaths are among the ways that are free and natural.