“When are we ever gonna use this in the ‘real world’?”
We’re all guilty of asking either our instructors or ourselves this question at least once.
During the course of our educational careers, most of us have mastered the art of retaining information long enough to pass an exam and then tossing everything we’ve learned out the door like last week’s old pizza boxes.
Alas, my peers, I’ve finally found a way to put something I’ve learned in college to use. (Crazy, right?)
Of course, I’m kidding. We can all utilize things we’ve learned in class every once in a while — but that’s beside the point.
Anyway, with this school year quickly coming to a close, I realized there’s so much on my to-do list to take care of before school is out forever — or for the summer at least. Suddenly, the stress hit me.
Stress is something we all inevitably encounter, good or bad, and if not dealt with correctly, it may seem like the world is ending.
I decided I would not let stress get the best of me this time around, so while walking around the Downtown campus, I tried thinking about things that made me happy: enchilada day, the nice, warm weather, the end of my freshman year and so on.
Then, something weird happened: I began to smile.
At that point, I told myself to simply smile more. Why? Here it comes ladies and gentlemen: the facial feedback hypothesis, something that I learned in psychology 101 this semester.
The facial feedback hypothesis, a psychological theory, states that we feel certain emotions based on the positioning of our facial muscles. Simply put, if you smile, you’ll feel happier; if you frown, you’ll feel sadder.
“The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it,” once said Charles Darwin, the man behind the theory of evolution.
During the ’90s, psychologist Paul Ekman and colleagues tested the facial feedback hypothesis by instructing participants to shift around their faces until an emotion was formed and felt.
After putting on a happy face and testing this theory myself, I can honestly say it did the trick. Yes, I felt extremely goofy and possibly seemed a tad delusional since I was just walking around smiling all day, but maybe that’s a part of the logic.
I’m almost certain I crept a few people out, but that’s OK because I felt great.
There it was — I successfully found use from something I learned in class for the “real world.”
So, how are you feeling today?
If you, too, are experiencing end-of-the-year anxiety, just smile. It may work wonders for you.
Share a smile with Ashley at alhaines@asu.edu
