SPT—People Seldom Notice a Double Chin if . . .

. . . you give them a big enough smile. Smiles are secret weapons when it comes to photography. But that’s not all . . .

You’ve heard it said, “A smile is the universal language.”—anon But did you know that even dogs can speak it? At least our dog, Blue, could. With her twisted mouth, her smile looked almost rabid, but she made you feel like a million bucks once you knew what she was doing. Recently I stopped by a friend’s home and her dog greeted me with that familiar-looking, twisted mouth. My friend met me at the door saying, “Don’t mind the dog, he’s just smiling.” That makes at least two dogs that can speak it.

Maybe you’ve heard it said, “A laugh is a smile that bursts.”—Mary H. Waldrip But did you know that a smile increases the production of the happy hormone, serotonin, and sometimes the lips can’t hold it all in? A good belly laugh (which starts with a smile) exercises the diaphragm, abdomen, lungs, face, leg and back muscles. With all of the miserable, sweat-inducing, boring workouts on the market today a good laugh is a fun and painless way to burn calories.

Perhaps you’ve seen someone with: “A smile (that) appeared upon her face as if she'd taken it directly from her handbag and pinned it there.” —Loma Chandler But did you know that smiling is so important that even a fake one has benefits? Scientists have discovered that your body doesn’t know the difference between a fake or a real smile and will respond to your happy face as if it’s the actual thing.

It’s true that “The ultimate in shapely curves is found in a smile”—anon Because a study conducted by UC-Berkeley found that women who smiled in their college yearbook photos led happier lives, had happier marriages, and had had fewer personal setbacks in the following 30 years.

You already knew that “A smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is home.”—anon But did you know that a smile from a good joke also means the brain is turned on? It takes the whole brain to get a joke—the left side analyzes it, the right side makes meaning of it, the frontal lobe controls the emotional response you give to it, and the visual images of the joke are developed in the back.

Thanks to KnB-photography and Sara Rae Photography for catching my smile.