In my intro to psych class I remember my professor made us hold a pencil between our upper lip and nose for one minute. Then we had to hold a pencil between our lower lip and chin for one minute. We were then asked how we felt after doing both these exercises. The point my professor was trying to make was not to make the class look like idiots, but to explain the importance of smiling. More importantly, she was trying to get us to understand the facial feedback hypothesis. Chapter 12 of our textbook explains this hypothesis by saying that we don't' smiling because we are happy, we are happy because we smile. While this might not seem right to some people, I found a pretty hilarious video of a girl whose situation might have been improved if she had tried smiling. This clip is of a band member of Boise State who may be stuck on a less than desirable instrument, but her lack of emotion and motivation is clearly displayed on her face. The facial feedback hypothesis would say that if she smiled and displayed some positive emotion on her face, it might trigger further cognitive and bodily participation to prolong the perceived emotion of happiness.
I started to think about think hypothesis and if I think it really works, and I for one do think smiling helps. I wouldn't go as far as to say that smiling helps in all situations, but at least smiling gives you the appearance of being happy. If I smile it not only makes me feel better, but I think other people around you feel more at ease also. Are there any situations where smiling even though you were in a bad mood has helped you? Does smiling motivate us to be in a better mood?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-r02-oZA
I remember learning about this in Intro to psych, too. I've actually remembered it and used it on a few occasions. I'll be having a bad day, or I'm really stressed, or sad for some reason and then I'll remember that. I'll force myself to smile, even if I don't want to, and within seconds I feel a little better.
If that's not enough, I force myself to be around happy people. If I'm around that group of people who are cracking up, I know that I will be, too. Usually, that's all it takes to get me back into a good mood.
I also recommend this tip to people who are having a bad day. If they don't want to and demand on pouting, I do something stupid to make them laugh just because I know that it will help.