Once you get the hang of it, flipping the blessing is a ton of fun. But it’s not always easy. One of the hardest things to flip is our flipping attitude! Attitude is a big piece of the blessing puzzle, and it doesn’t cost a dime!

One of the simplest ways to bless someone is with a smile. Make no mistake—your smile is a superpower! Scientifically speaking, a smile reduces stress by suppressing cortisol and increases happiness by releasing endorphins. Of course, it doesn’t take a scientific study to convince us of the benefits of smiling. It’s intuitive. What’s counterintuitive is this: We don’t just smile because we’re happy. We’re happy because we smile. A smile has the power to hack your emotions and trick your brain.

Did you know that children smile approximately four hundred times per day, while adults smile an average of twenty times per day? Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we lose 380 smiles! We’ve got to get some of those smiles back! Smiling is the way we steward our forty-three facial muscles as well as the seventh cranial nerve that controls them.

When I was in high school, I remember doing “yawn experiments” during study hall to pass the time. If I remember right, our record was a chain reaction of seventeen people yawning. It’s amazing how subconsciously contagious a yawn is. So is a smile! If you want to have some fun during a meeting or party or dinner gone dull, try a smile experiment. Target the person who seems like the least likely person to crack a smile; then start sending some smiles their way. If a regular smile doesn’t work, you have permission to silly smile!

In all seriousness, what if we leveraged our smiles as a subtle way of blessing others? Your smile has the power to turn someone’s frown upside down! Of course, I better add one warning: smiling is scientifically proven to make you more attractive!