Happy is Healthy

Happy is Healthy

Healthy is something we all strive for, whether for ourselves or for our kids. As adults it can be activities including going to the gym, cutting back on sugar or signing up for a dance class, but for children being healthy can mean eating their broccoli, taking baths and getting playtime outdoors. Healthy bodies come from healthy lifestyles, so how do we stay healthy? Whether it was from loving parents or school gym teachers, certain things have been repeated enough times to make them almost second nature in our minds. As a parent, how many times have you prompted your child towards these healthy practices?

1. Eat plenty of veggies—balanced meals
2. Be on time for school-time management
3. Get a good night’s sleep—reduce stress levels
4. Exert energy through play—active lifestyle

We, as humans, may do all of the above things because they were ingrained in our routines growing up and in turn, helped us form healthy habits, but there is another simple practice that we might not connect to healthy living: smiling. Yes, using those face muscles is a path to health! Smiling has been shown not only to lift your own mood and the mood of others, but it can also lengthen your life—yeah, believe it. Science has shown that a sincere smile is one triggered by a chemical in the brain called dopamine, which many refer to as the chemical responsible for happiness. Yet even if the smile is not sincere, the very act of forming your face into a smile increases the blood flow into the frontal lobes of the brain and increases the release of dopamine. Either way, health and happiness wins!

Spreading joy to others gives many people pleasure in life. While it is hard to force someone to “be happy”, it is easier to make someone smile. One proven method is to encourage play. Toys and games are built to bring on smiles, and the science backs that up.

Here are a list of toys that can bring on the smiles and spread the happiness:

• The Haywire Group FrankenWords— This compound word game will have families in stitches over the combinations.
• Hasbro Pie Face!— How can this not bring a smile to ones face (and some “pie”)?

• 3Hedstrom Sensory Bumpeez – Give it a squeeze to hear the hysterical laugh of a baby emerge. Laughter is contagious!
• Winning Moves Crocodile Dentist—This croc builds anticipation and has a bite of surprise. Which tooth will make him snap?

• Toysmith Voice Changer—Not just a voice changer, but a game changer for imaginative play!
• USAopoly Telestrations—The whole family will be cracking up when they share the drawings.
• McClean Enterprises Catch Up Game— Catch Up Game fosters togetherness and that fuels happiness.

Feeling good, sharing smiles and connecting to others are emotional vitamins that contribute to a person’s health. Toys and play are a “tonic” that helps kids create positive moods, turn on the healthy hormones and help them and those around them feel better inside and out. And everyone can use a dose of that!

Helpful Articles

• How to Raise Happy Kids
• Five Ways to Cultivate Friendships
• What Is Emotional Intelligence and Why Is It so Important?
• Tech for Developing Mental Strength for Life’s UPS and Downs
• Art Therapy: How It Works, the Benefits, How to Start
• Anxiety in Children and Adolescents
• 5 Steps to Help Your Child Manage Emotions

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This post originally appeared on our March/April 2016 Magazine