Dean Graziosi discusses how smiling — even when forced — influences internal neurochemistry (releasing dopamine, serotonin, endorphins) and external perception. He cites studies (a UC Berkeley college yearbook study and a study of smiling baseball rookies) and shares personal anecdotes (his daughter noticing he hadn't smiled) to argue that outer appearance, particularly smiling, shapes mental state, health, relationships, and perceived success.
Chapters
Life does kick our butts, especially in the recent years, in recent time. And it's easy to let it get to us, to where we wake up and we forget gratitude, we forget that we're blessed to be here. We forget to smile. What internally has shifted because of that outside world. And I want you to start with number one, outer appearance. I want you to think about outer appearance. If everything was the same here today, right? If I talked the same way, everything was, you know, exactly like everything we taught in previous lessons and everything I'm teaching now. What if I said, hey guys, I'm so glad that you're here today and we've had some amazing breakthroughs yesterday. Thanks for coming back. Like, think if that was me, how long would you guys stay? You guys would bail in two seconds and bounce and be like, what's wrong with this guy? I see it. Lauren, two thumbs down, right? But how many of us are not realizing that the external stuff came in? The villain gets fueled. Think about this. Did you know that when you smile alone, this is just one piece of your outer appearance? When you smile, it releases feel good neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins. Right? Did you know this? There was a study at UC Berkeley, that college yearbook study found that women whose college photos were radiated happiness smiles, became more organized, mentally focused and achievement oriented, and had better health, happier marriages, and later in life. Think about that for a second. I'm not talking about shoulders back and standing tall. I'm just talking about a smile. Did you know there was another study that I saw ages ago that baseball rookie cards, you know, the old baseball cards, some of you that are older, we used to collect those as a kid. Right. Did you know the rookies who smiled ended up having better careers, more successful and happier marriages? Oh, smile. Here's the crazy part. Because our brain. Has anybody ever done this? And I maybe because I study and obsess on this stuff. Anybody, like, in a bad mood, something going sideways, the outside world got to you and you just smile. You look in the mirror and go, oh, my God, this is crazy. Has anybody ever done that? Like, even when the, like, like it's hit the fan and all of a sudden you feel better because your body doesn't know the difference when you smile, when you put a smile on your face, your body goes, oh, I thought we were stressed, but I guess we're good. I guess things are better. And that's one of the internal things you could start focusing on because, listen, life does kick our butts, especially in the recent years, in recent time. And it's easy to let it get to us, to where we wake up and we forget gratitude, we forget that we're blessed to be here. We forget to smile. You know, about six months ago, I was juggling way too much at once. Several different companies, a lot going on. It was like a three week period where we just felt heavy. That's life. It goes through those phases. And my daughter literally said to me, dad, I haven't seen you smile in a while. And oh my God, it hit me like a punch in the face. Like, I literally stopped that immediately because I was letting the inside world, letting the outside world affect me internally. I mean, think about this. Think about if you never had a conversation with someone, but you're across the street and you're at. You're in, I don't know, you're in Nice, France. I haven't been there in 20 years, but I loved it there. And I loved the. There's a big open street where everybody eats and it's gorgeous. And the main, I don't know, the main street there. There's probably a French name for it. In Italy it would be the piazza in French. I don't know what it is, but somebody will probably tell me anyway. Imagine you're across the street and you see somebody eating and you never had a conversation with them. Could you. Or would we predict what kind of person that was even if we never had a conversation? Could you predict just from their outer appearance? The answer is yes. You think about that. What if you looked over and someone was eating and they were like this, And then the waiter comes over, they're like. And you only saw this. Like, our brains automatically go, oh, that person's not so happy. They're not fulfilled. They're not excited about life. They probably don't have gratitude. I wonder if they're successful. Like, literally, that's the way our brains think. Secondly, if you saw somebody across the street at the same restaurant and you saw them like this, and then somebody walked by and like, oh, no problem. And the waiter came. Excuse me, Hi. What is this here? You know, and you're watching this, two completely different feelings and you never had that conversation. So how do you think your internal psyche, your subconscious reacts to you? If you are person number one or, or your person number two, how do you think that is affecting you? It affects you more than you could ever imagine.
