Sharing Smiles is Part of Living A Healthy Lifestyle

Life in the land of bean counters is not always good, but when it’s good, it is VERY good. When all of the beans have been counted and sorted, sometimes it’s nice to sit back and smile and celebrate my accomplishments. Smiling is a very satisfying endeavor when done correctly. It requires facial muscles and good humor, and we should always be thankful when we have facial muscles. Am I right or am I right?

Today was a particularly satisfying day in that I got a visit from the Good Fairy. The Good Fairy granted my wish by giving me magic beans (she cancelled a whole bunch of meetings), thereby evoking exclamations of glee from this sometimes gloomy girl. I asked the Good Fairy if she was willing to grant more wishes in the form of gold nuggets, but alas, she said she was tapped out. Still, I was content. It’s not every day I get the gift of magic beans and we should always be grateful for such fantastic events.

I decided to share my joy by smiling and laughing and making lots of weird jokes to all of the wonderful people I work with. You see, sometimes counting beans can be very stressful and people can get a little grumpy. One problem I have formerly discussed in this space is how the company I work for is a cornucopia of delectable treats. There is usually cake, or cupcakes or cookies or bagels or some other such food decorating the filing cabinets. Since I have compulsive behaviors, I am sometimes prone to snatch those goodies. Unfortunately, I am often the unwilling victim of the Guilt Monster. He usually grabs me somewhere along the way between procuring the tasty vittles and my cubicle, and since I have a terrible time throwing perfectly good candy away, over time, I end up with a fairly sizeable stash of treats.

Today I took advantage of this horrible compulsive behavior and began re-gifting. Now re-gifting candy is not like re-gifting your left-over Christmas socks. It actually makes people happy. Except when they are trying to lose that extra Christmas heft, by which means they passive aggressively hate me after our encounter has concluded. Still, I feel good about sharing smiles. Even my dentist, the venerable Louise First, would be happy to know I have been handing out Snickers bars rather than hard candy. She once told me it is better for tooth enamel that we eat our candy quickly(chocolate vs. peppermints), rather than suck on it for long periods of time. And making my dentist happy makes me happy.

One of the other ways I shared joy was by renaming places I frequent that have—in my humble opinion—boring names. For instance, I suggested we rename the restroom The Vestibule of Relief. The other ladies I met there wholeheartedly agreed and so the matter is settled. The next time I am in a meeting I hereby solemnly swear to refer to it as such when I excuse myself. Cubicles will be called Corners of Quiet (because no one like a loud cube-mate). Elevators shall be called Bliss Boxes, because seriously—only weird healthy people take the stairs and not exerting energy between boring meetings is rather blissful when you think about it. And meetings will be called Kwickie Conventions. Because “I’m going to a Kwickie Convention” sounds much cooler than, “I’m going to a meeting.”

For those at home who don’t have the privilege of working in an office under the title of Bean Counter, don’t despair. You too can rename the boring spaces in your home, or even the children under your care(For instance, I lovingly refer to my own children as beastlets because—as they well know—they are in fact not full grown beasts yet). In fact, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so in the comments. Because sharing smiles is one of the very most important activities of living a healthy lifestyle. And I might be gloomy again tomorrow so I’ll take all the smiles I can get.

Lastly, I made a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home and saw the largest, the most beau-ti-licious, the most incredibly edible looking cauliflower I have ever set my eyes on. So I bought one. This one is for my sister, the Cauliflower Queen. Smile, Sis! You deserve it!

On January 26, 2016   /   The Journey   /   1 Comment