Smileys. They are found online across the globe and can mean many different things including “I’m happy,” “I’m smiling,” “that’s funny,” or “just kidding.”

It seems to me like smileys are quite common everywhere, except one place. Wondering where that one place is? It’s called the real world.

Do you ever see someone walking down the sidewalk smiling for what seems like no reason? What do you think about them? “They look so weird walking around smiling for no reason!” The question is, how do you know he is smiling for no reason? Can you see what she is typing in her head?

Why do we assume that someone is weird if he is walking around with a smile on his face? Mostly because not many people do it any more. We live in a country that expects people to tuck their positive emotions away in a secret folder that is never to be publicly displayed.

In fact, our society seems to always keep the “negativity” folder open on its desktop. If you are unhappy with something a friend said to another friend about you, you chat it to all your friends.

What about when that same friend says something nice about you to a friend? First off, the fact that you found out about it at all would be miraculous, but if you did find out, would you make a point to thank that person? Brag on them on your blog?

You may be afraid the complimentary friend will find out that the word was spread. Did you worry about that when you spread the word about their not so complimentary words? Wouldn’t it make more sense to let them know you appreciated their compliment?

So, let out those positive emotions. Believe it or not the whole world wants to see them. They are dying for permission to let theirs out! So do us all a favor and smile! Don’t worry, it won’t crack your face, and if you get wrinkles from smiling, they will look a lot better than frowny wrinkles!

I previously mentioned some goals I have set for myself. Now I am going to set a another one. I am going to practice walking around smiling for no particular reason. I tried that while walking today, and do you have any idea how difficult it was? I kept noticing that I had a normal expression on my face instead of a smile.

I discovered that having a desire to smile actually makes me think of pleasant things. This is true because I need something to smile about, so I click on that search box in my head and type in “pleasant.” It was so cool to scroll down that list of wonderful things to think about!

Anyone else want to join me on this smiley venture? It can do nothing but benefit you. You may even get the opportunity to take your own scroll down memory lane!