{"id":10880,"date":"2012-02-10T10:27:39","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T15:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/UpbeaT\/?p=10880"},"modified":"2012-02-10T10:27:39","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T15:27:39","slug":"big-smiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2012\/02\/10\/big-smiles\/","title":{"rendered":"BIG SMILES"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This might not be my most flattering shot but isn't that just the biggest smile you've ever seen?!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nGuess what Upbeaters? I\u2019m totally high\u2026on life right now! I just had a birthday and thanks to Facebook<\/a> and hand held cellular devices (and email and phone calls and snail mails)\u2026my incredible community of friends and family made me feel on top of the world! The birthday lovin' gun hit me and I think it penetrated my core cause I\u2019ve been radiating ever since! What happens when you radiate? Well for me, I smile a heck of a lot more\u2026at squirrels, at trees, even at the CN Tower!\n\nOkay, I know my standard posts revolve around some sort of exercise, but this one will too! Like what if we all exercised our right to be kind to each other?! Or exercised our face muscles until they were totally jacked? (Less attractive or more attractive? You decide.) A smile might use fewer muscles than a frown, but this sort of exercise could just improve your cardio recovery<\/a> when you\u2019re feeling down and can make you feel better!\n\nThe best advice I ever received was in the 9th<\/sup> grade, from my older bro. I was struggling with the whole new school\/new friends\/few friends conflict that many of you can relate to. I was pretty upset. Fine, I was really upset, in tears as a matter of fact. My clever bro somehow knew to tell me to smile and then tricked me into laughing. I suppose it brought on an onslaught of fresh tears (unintentionally) but it also provided some comic relief. Try it! Next time you watch \"The Notebook\" or listen to Adele\u2019s \u201cSomeone Like You\u201d (SNL skit<\/a>) and get all choked-up, turn that sob into a smile \u2013 you may cry harder at first, but don\u2019t let up, it will surely subside!\n\nMaybe you need to actually get out there and have some fun to break a smile. Tonight, head out for Skate Date<\/a>, though no date is required, you\u2019re most welcome to bring some loved ones! There will be tunes, free skate rentals, free hot chocolate and if you really want to make a night of it, come in time to catch the Blues men\u2019s hockey game<\/a> right before (7pm). Al the cheering will be sure to boost your mood and create a few smiles with each goal!\n\nThink about how easy this exercise is to do. I know you probably haven\u2019t been reaching Canada\u2019s recommended exercise guidelines<\/a>, but smiling at people? It\u2019s so easy! I don\u2019t care how old you are, where you are or what you\u2019re doing. I am going to smile at you. You might actually get so stunned because you\u2019ve been walking around the \u201ccold streets\u201d of Toronto\u00a0 (and let\u2019s face it \u2013 we\u2019re not known as a \u201chug and love\u201d kind of street crowd) \u2013 but\u2026 if you\u2019ll humour me and try to return the smile before I stroll past, we might change that.\n\nPerhaps this will be hard for you, perhaps it won\u2019t. If you offer up a smile to a stranger though you could really change a day. I don\u2019t play dominoes but I trust that something as simple as a smile can put positivity in motion.\n\nSo I challenge you, to give a smile (or a nod) to the next 5 strangers you see. I say strangers because I expect you to smile at your friends and family every time you see them! See if you feel better, see if they smile back, let me know if you think frowning would be a better use of your face.\n\nHappy days are coming, so get giddy!\n\np.s. keep your eyes peeled for the Joy at U of T<\/a> campaign! Write me back and tell me what makes it easier for you to smile!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n
\nGuess what Upbeaters? I\u2019m totally high\u2026on life right now! I just had a birthday and thanks to Facebook and hand held cellular devices (and email and phone calls and snail mails)\u2026my incredible community of friends and family made me feel…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “BIG SMILES”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “BIG SMILES”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,59,65,61,70,58,66,67],"tags":[768,405,259,1733,111,152,88,176,138,85,25506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}