Originally published here with permission of the author, me. And oh, by the way, laughter is contagious. Watch the hilarious video below.

It sounds counter-intuitive, doesn't it?

Unhappy? Smile! WTF? Are you serious?

Damn skippy!

We often think that smiling is the result of being happy. But it’s actually a two-way street.

People DO smile when they are happy.

But try this the next time you’re sad: SMILE!

Smiling can actually make you happier than you currently are. It’s true. Watch the video to see.

I tell my kids all the time when they’re in a bad mood: Smile.

They think I’m being a jerk, and sometimes I am.

But I learned this trick a LONG time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (in my teens – oh, so long ago).

I was a mostly happy kid but I did experience quite a bit of sadness at an early age.

My dad and my grandmother died within one month of each other, right around Christmas, when I was 13. Prior to that, my grandmother had suffered with kidney failure and 3x weekly jaunts to dialysis machines for 4 hours at a time.

Since I lived with my grandparents, I spent a lot of time with them at the hospital. Often, alone. It’s tough to hang out for 4 hours in a pickup truck in the hot sun while your grandfather reads every page of the daily newspaper.

So not only was I alone a lot, I wasn’t happy.

I’d get in “funks.” Still do.

And when I do, I smile.

In fact, I practice it.

I suggest you try it. Try it before you’re sad. Practice.

It really works.

The world would be a better place if we’d all smile more.

Less war. More abundance. I truly believe this.

Here's a scientific explanation of what I said above. Kind of. It's about laughter. But I view laughter to smile as video to image. Same ideas conveyed. Movement in one, not the other.

Make sense?

Tell me what you think in the Comments.