Smiling is Fantastic - You Catch it Like the Flu...

Smiling is such a wonderful thing. Look at the picture above. When you look at the watermelon, you feel joy in your heart. 

A simple smile can have the power to change the world around us.

The way we act around people matters so much more than you think.

Open your eyes and look at the world. What do you see?

People are pretty miserable right now, am I right?

There is so much heart ache and trauma out there, but each of us can make a difference starting right now. With one small act of kindness, you can change your surroundings.

Smile like you mean it

Even if you are having a bad day, smile as if you are having the best day. Try to change that negative mindset into a positive one. Today could be not just great, but it could be fantastic.

What I have learned from surviving unspeakable trauma, is that you have always got a choice. 

Trauma survivors, could take the abuse and let it slowly consume us, mentally and physically. 

Or we can fight back. 

"You get busy living, or get busy dying." 

(Shawshank Redemption, movie quote)

There is life after abuse, and it can be awesome if you welcome it.

As a very young child, I remember having a profound epiphany, when I decided that my abusers were not going to break me. 

I looked up at the night sky through the confines of my imprisonment in my abuser's dark apartment. I was hurting and alone, and I saw a twinkling star that appeared to be moving across the night sky in a fast trajectory. 

It was a shooting star.

The star seemed to twinkle right at me, and in that moment, I knew that my life would change for the better. 

One day. 

I was going to make it out alive, and move far away from everyone.

In the years after that moment, I started to challenge and rebel against every abusive act, inside my own head. I told myself over and over that my family was not normal, and that I would never be like them. 

Ten years later, I realized my dream and left. 

I haven't looked back since.

It was a little like being given CPR and coming back to life.

I slowly started picking up the pieces of my young soul. My heart was beating strong and sure in my chest. My breathing was no longer labored, and each breath was cleansing and free. I saw color around me for the first time.

I was on the journey to find my true self because every step I took was for me, and not for anyone else.

I started by smiling more because a simple smile was something I was never given without crushing pain accompanying it. 

I smiled at people, even when I was struggling myself, and a simple smile gave me nods and kind reactions from people I came across. 

I craved people's happiness. It made me feel good too.

I started to volunteer at a homeless community center, and my presence made a big difference. I took the time to sit and listen to people's stories over a cup of coffee and peach cobbler, that the volunteers made. 

Each day was a different type of cobbler or desert, and with it came a new story. I listened, I laughed and cried with the people that I met. I was just a volunteer, but my listening helped many people back then. 

Those people made me a better person because I learned that slowing down and listening to others helped them, and by helping them, I felt better too.

The power of having someone listen to you speak is profound. It's important to listen, especially now in our fast-paced, technology-driven society. 

Our needs as human beings have not changed, just because we have the internet. We are still social creatures and we need real people and human connections in our lives. We need to feel emotions.

I have an elderly neighbor, who is a widow. I gave her our number so she can call us if she needs help because she has a complicated history with her own family. 

Her grandson knocked on our door, and pleaded for help. He told me his grandma couldn't breathe, and he had called an ambulance. He's an adult in his twenties but as soon as he had my attention, he took off to play baseball. 

I shot out my front door and ran to her house and found her sitting on the edge of her armchair gasping for breath. 

Her eyes looked at me in panic, so I ran to her and knelt by her feet. I grabbed her hands and smiled. I told her that she was going to be okay, and that she was not alone. 

I got her oxygen mask hooked up and adjusted to her face, and talked to her as I worked calmly and quickly to untangle to wires from where the tank was stored behind her arm chair. 

I breathed with her when she was about to give up because it hurt too much to inhale. 

The paramedics arrived and hooked her up to beeping machines. They stabilized her quickly and lifted her onto a stretcher into the waiting ambulance. As they took her away, she raised her hand in a "thank you" gesture. 

I didn't do much, but what I did do in that fragile moment meant so much to her. She made it, which felt awesome. I did the right thing when she was ready to give up.

Think about your lives and be grateful for every moment. If you are a survivor like me then you know how bad things can be. 

Life is precious and everyone matters. Everyone has a voice but not everyone uses it.

A small act of kindness can mean so much to someone. It can be as simple as offering a smile or giving up your time to sit with someone and listen. It can be holding someone's hand in solidarity.

There is a poem I came across in my early twenties by a British poet called Spike Milligan. It's stayed with me since. 

He wrote a poem called "Keep Smiling." He writes that a simple smile can go a very long way. I think we should try and inject some positivity into our negative world. 

Go out there and give it your best shot. Give the world your smile and notice what happens when you do.

My name is Lizzy. I'm a trauma survivor, a wife, a mom, a teacher, and an author.

If you like reading my posts, then please follow me.

For more about me: www.elizabethwoodsauthor.com

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