A few days ago my town held its monthly market and I had a stall selling my books and doing Oracle card readings.  It was super busy and although it was so much fun, the practical side of erecting and then dismantling everything: unpacking and then repacking tents, tables, chairs, stock etc. (especially in the rain) was exhausting. 

It took me a couple of days to dry everything out and get back into some sort of physical and emotional balance and today, when I saw the sun was shining I decided to go for a ride on my trusty rusty tricycle. 

It was beautiful.  There is a path which runs from the end of the street I live on right through some melaleuca and mangrove wetlands and then continues for kilometres along the edge of the Coral Sea.  As I cycled through the wetlands there was not another soul to be seen and I couldn’t help but feel my spirits lift and my heart to soar with the beauty of this muddy area.  I yelled to the shrubs and trees, at the top of my voice. “Thank you!  Thank you for all you do the protect this shoreline from erosion.  Thank you for providing places of safety for the creatures that live in your roots, your branches and your leaves.”

As I left that area and moved into the more populated parts of this tiny town I could feel the smile on my face.  My smile did not want to leave my face and so I smiled at every person I met and wished them ‘good morning’.  And every single person smiled back.

In each of those people, brain chemicals are being released when they smile.  These elevate your mood, make you feel good right through your body, and even reduce physical pain.  Responding to a smile with a smile is like taking happy pills – and no nasty side-effects!

When we talk of how we need to make changes in the collective lives of humans; how we need to resolve the problems of politics and hunger and illness; when we talk of how we need a more equitable distribution of wealth; of climate change and equality between the sexes, we talk, we yell, we sometimes fight but little actually gets done to make these major changes happen in a form that is stable.  We make great forward strides in one area only to discover that something else is falling apart!  It’s as if humans are in Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn mode. How do we move away from these responses we currently live within?

Sometimes we have to get right down to basics. And the most uplifting, beautiful, energising yet basic thing that one human can show to another is a smile.

What if we just smile at everyone? 

It won’t fix everything, but it is a place to start and it’s an activity that everyone can take part in. 

And it feels so good!