Ron Gutman embarks on a fascinating global expedition while reviewing a raft of studies about smiling, which reveal some surprising results. Did you know your smile can be a predictor of how long you’ll live — and that a simple smile has a measurable effect on your overall well-being and the quality of life of people around you? Prepare to flex a few facial muscles as you learn more about this evolutionarily contagious behavior. “Ron Gutman has written a supremely optimistic treatment of the smile. He has linked the far reaches of human existence to a common facial gesture that we all respond to without really knowing why. His book invited me to look beyond common boundaries, which is what a smile does in the first place, and which our eyes do, also. (The two are fused in a phrase “Her eyes smiled at me.”) If it turns out, after all our worry and disorder, that we do live in a universe that smiles on us, it will come as an immense relief. We have had a reason to smile all along, and reflecting on that truth will bring yet another smile to our faces.” –Deepak Chopra, MD

Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act PDF

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