The world can be full of tests, trials and tribulations. Parts of your life can be perfect while other aspects can go awry with the drop of a hat. Irony can get the best of you and your imagination can take you on a wild goose chase. The world has a funny way of taking care of us sometimes. We don’t always get it.  What we want isn’t always what we need and what we think we need isn’t always what we get. But at the end of the day everything always works itself out exactly as it’s supposed to. You just have to keep the faith, keep moving forward and remember, wherever you go there you are.

Here’s an exercise I posted when I first started down this path.  It helps me get back to basics and to stop taking myself so seriously all the time.  I hope it works for you too…

Let’s look in the mirror.  Let’s just look into our own eyes and try to find the beauty there.  Just keep staring, admiring, looking deep, looking pure, and then when you get enough courage together, smile.  Smile big.  Smile genuinely at the smile smiling back at you.   A smile on your face, A chuckle in your throat, A giggle on your lips.  The laughter that follows.  This is the true you.  The real you.  The person who loves you and believes in you and thinks you are stunning.   You are looking at the person who gets you out of bed in the morning.  The person who no matter how many times they fail still gets up and try’s again.   The smiling person looking back at you is who you really are.  So take this smile into the world with you today.  Share it with everyone you come in contact with.  This is your free gift to the beauty of the planet and your simple yet tremendous contribution to society.

This smiling face is the representation of you and the world looks forward to embracing that smile.  Your very smile can save someone’s life.  Your sad neighbor uses it to brighten up their day.  The child who fell off their bike uses your smile to encourage them to get back up and try again.   The old lady who may be lonely holds on to that smile triggering happy memories of her life.    The teenager who just broke up with his girlfriend embraces your smile as hope that his heart will heal.  Your smile is the undeniable beauty of your true self and the world needs your smile.  It starts with you.  A smile will brighten up the darkest of days.  If you smile it is impossible to be sad.  If you start laughing a true real laugh will take it’s place and you will forget why you were sad.  The power in a smile is huge.   A random act of kindness that doesn’t cost anyone anything and yet it will shower you and those around you with the riches of happiness.

The best part of a smile is when it turns into a giggle.  It’s subtle and you try to control it but why control it?  Let it go!  When you let go of it, it becomes contagious and when you look around everyone around you has the same expression as you.  All you have to do is smile at someone and the face before you becomes somehow brighter and the energy that is transferred between you lifts you both up to a higher place of elation.   It’s in this higher place of excitement that laughter follows.  Because after all laughter is a smile that bursts.