Smile and the whole world smiles with you

Sometimes we get in a funk.  We see life though the filter of our attitude.  If our attitude is dark and negative we will only see the bad.  If our attitude is positive, we will see the good side.  It has been hard for me to accept that with 5 people in this family, there will almost never be a time when we are all in a good mood at the same time...and I may never give up that hope. Which is why I have come up with some silly games to turn bad attitudes around quickly.  

The Smile Contest:  Studies have proven that smiling, even fake smiling changes the chemistry in the brain and actually makes you feel happier.  So if one of the kids is sporting a grumpy face for a prolonged period, I will often challenge him to a smiling contest.  It doesn't matter who wins, because everyone wins when people are happy.

The Don't Smile game:  I tell them, "Okay don't you smile." in a fake stern tone while pretending like I'm doing everything I can not to smile/laugh.  As soon as they start to crack, bust out laughing and throw in a snort or two...works every time.

The Show Me How You Feel with Your Face game: I ask the kid to show me how sad or mad they feel with their face either by looking in the mirror or taking their picture and showing it to them.  They can't help but to laugh when they see their outrageous facial expressions, no matter how hard they try.

The At Least... game:  We take turns pretending something bad happened like "Oh man, I broke my arm and now I have to keep it in a cast that sticks straight up in the air!" Then we make up an "At least..." follow-up statement such as, "At least I'll be ready to jam out at a rock concert."  or "At least I'll always be ready when the teacher asks a question." or "At least there will always be someone to take the blame for the odor in the air." The crazier, the better.

I understand that everybody gets down sometimes and I'm not trying to get them to stuff their feelings.  We all need to let off some steam every now and then.  I really only use these games when I can see that the attitude needs to shift from "woe is me" or "everything bad always happens to me" and not when they are legitimately upset about something specific.

“A smile costs nothing, but creates much. It enriches those who receive, without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash and the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.” - Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Here's Kyle playing the Don't Smile game after we had already had a Smile Contest.  Two minutes prior, he was grumpy...and maybe a couple of the other dwarfs too.