Hey, brave-hearted sisters! Wonderful to be with you again and welcome to The BraveHearted Woman Podcast.

In this episode, I want to give you a tip that will change ~ listen to this, your mental health, your relationships, and your beauty. So if you're up for this incredible and God-designed life hack, stay tuned.

All right, well, I heard a fascinating and notable statistic the other day. Listen to this, it takes 62 muscles to frown, and 26 to smile. When we say go ahead and turn your frown upside down. Those numbers literally and if you turn them upside down, they trade places 62 muscles to frown, and 26 muscles to smile. Science proves what we have suspected all along. It takes more energy to show a sad face than a happy one. In fact, it truly does require more energy to be miserable and moody than it does to be pleasant and joyful. That happy face finding would be really difficult to swallow if science hadn't backed us up but it does.

When I heard that statistic, I thought ‘Yeah, right.’ It's easier to give those negative moods, a voice and hurl destructive words. Sometimes it just feels good to let that frustration fly. But you know, it's only for a minute because though you can get forgiveness for your words, your words can't be forgotten. They can be there for a lifetime.

So the reality is that walking around with a sour look on your face and giving into pity parties and bad moods, while maybe giving you an immediate payoff and feels good. Later, it learns it just leads to regret and pain and sadness and broken relationships. A sad face drains energy from us. Science proves it. With our joy, SAP and our nervous system are now pushed to the edge. We are going to feel lethargic and weary. But a smile, on the other hand, is this God-given design in our DNA, and the way he made this, a smile goes a long way to improving your overall health, your mental health, your outlook on life, honesty, your relationships, and your beauty.

According to scientist Andrew Newberg, a smile is a symbol that was rated with the highest positive emotional content. That means that smile goes a long way it's communicating something it's just not gracing your faith and a face and adding to your beauty. You radiate positive energy and joy that's actually communicating to others. Now, listen to this. This is going to blow your mind. Okay, ready for it? Science has discovered that smiling stimulates our brain's reward mechanisms in a way that the most famed, well-regarded pleasure-inducer chocolate cannot match. What more than chocolate? That's inconceivable. But yes, friends, Bravehearts, it is true.

Smiling can change your mood, your outlook, and the course of your life. And yes, your beauty is better than chocolate. Your brain loves it when you smile, it releases chemicals to provide you with the energy that you need. And not only does your smile, change your mood, Chemically speaking, and biologically speaking, your moods and your feelings change when you smile. But science also proves that it's going to do the same thing for others who see you smiling.

So let me tell you a story. I don't know how many of you know this may be many of you if you listen to me, but I went through a really dark season of depression and anxiety. It actually started the other way around because I really did not experience depression as a young adult, as a young wife and a mother, and even into my 40s depression just wasn't part of my life until I already got put myself at 40 but it started at about 30 to 33 when I no longer could keep all. The balls were under the water so to speak, there was no more room to shove another emotional wound or trauma in a closet. The secret place was no longer willing to hide and my body was advocating for me in a way that said, ‘You got to deal with this, you're going to have to look at your trauma and deal with it.’ So at about 32 years old, I experienced I started one morning, and I just woke up. I just had so much anxiety. I didn't know what it was. I didn't have a name for it. I just knew something wasn't right. Something was really, really different for me. And it felt like my heart was racing, I would often say I felt like I was like a deer caught in headlights, you could see what that looks, if you were watching me on YouTube was just like, I was startled. I was paralyzed. I was frozen. That I didn't know what to do. went on through the whole day. It went on through the next few days, I couldn't sleep and I immediately had what they call anorexia induced because of trauma and anxiety. So nothing would go down, nothing would stay. And I loved my life. I loved what I was doing. I was sad. I didn't know what was happening. Well, that was the onslaught turns out. You've heard of Black Tuesday, and Black Friday, it was definitely one of those days. And it went on for another 30 days. Me, where I woke up every day with anxiety. After a while that anxiety began to turn into depression, which I discovered is the same chemical imbalance, just the opposite end of it. I was so depressed, I was overwhelmed with sorrow. Everything was hard. Everything was difficult. The light that I loved was gone. I had I was hopeless. And I started to move into what they call death wish. I didn't want to die. But I just couldn't take another day. I didn't want to commit suicide, I loved my life. I loved my family, I loved my children, I loved my church, my job my life. I loved myself, but I didn't want to live anymore, because I was so overwhelmed. And it was too difficult.

But I got a hold of this principle, that smiling would release chemicals and tell your brain that you were happy. That you could begin to biologically outsmart depression by smiling. So every day for about 20 minutes, I would sit on the end of the bed and I would just be smiling. I just would smile some more and smile some more. And I'd look at myself in the mirror again and smile. And I can remember my husband coming home, at the time you'd come home and say you're smiling, ‘Do you feel better?’ It's a no, I was terrible. But I'm letting my body know I'm happy. What was I doing? I was using science to reverse what was going on in my body.

I will also tell you that I finally did get on some medication. So, within three weeks of receiving that medication, I was in complete balance and harmony. So something was really out of whack. But I also didn't just go on living as normal. I went on to go ahead and take that deep dive, drag the river, find the issues, pull them up to the surface, look at it, and process my drama. But I learned the power of smiling. And now it's just a habit. I want to smile. When it sometimes can even be a game when somebody's not smiling or they look sad just to show a smile, not a smile of hey, but just a smile, maybe even a little nod of compassion, a smile that says I feel you a smile that says you're not alone. I want to just offer the world a smile to say we can turn whatever's going on in your life upside down.

So today not to be trite, but turn your frown upside down. Use 26 muscles instead of 60. To use the energy to change the world to change your world to impact somebody's life. Get that bitter frown off your face. I know a woman who I don't know what she's gone through in her life. I don't know what her tragedy is. I don't know what her trauma is. But I do know that everything about her is bitter over the years of knowing her because you will hear 10 negative things she will even have the ability to completely cut you and often walk away from you and one minute you might be your friend and the next minute. She's just throwing daggers at you. I don't judge that but I do discern there's a lot of pain there. There are a lot of beginners I don't think I've ever seen this woman smile. Now after knowing her for some years. Her body is very frail. She's very little she has asked you proses her bones are brittle. And all the things that the Word of God says to us are happening have come to pass in her life. So smile. Let the Lord know that you're grateful for another breath in your lungs smile because you do have another day of life. Smile because your future is bright. You are a bravehearted woman. Your future is amazing.

And if you're stuck and you're afraid and you don't know what's next, that's why you need a coach because definitely a woman of God, daughter of God, bravehearted woman, there is indeed a next you have a purpose you are here by divine order. So smile because you're an overcomer smile because you have greatness inside of you smile because this is your season. You are now a wise woman. Never in your life have you had more wisdom, more grace, more finesse, more understanding more patience, or more ability to speak into the lives of other people. So smile, and the world will smile back at you. I'm smiling with you.

Listen, smiling will make you beautiful. And my free gift for you at this episode is I want to offer you my free download. It is My 10 Favorite Beauty Products. Now I've never done this before but I'm doing it now because I do have them. I have products that I love that help me age well and help me keep looking my best. I want you to look your best because we got to show up in this world and in this in our situation wherever we are is relevant and is wise and influential because we are the best that we've ever been in midlife. So if you want the free checklist of my 10 beauty hacks go to braveheartedwoman.com/resources. I think I titled it ‘Don's glittering beauty tips,’

I want you to have that and I'm going to leave you like I always do bravehearted woman. Don't forget, to follow me, like me, and subscribe. But most importantly, I want you to find your brave and live your vision. This is Dawn Damon your Braveheart mentor saying, Live with grit and glitter!