My High-Five System

             I was recently diagnosed with panic disorder. This means that at times I can’t control how I react to stress and presser sometimes. This means that I shake to the point that it’s harder to write and sometimes I collapse from my knees going weak. I feel anxious and I don’t know what to do. I get nervous and think that I can’t do something anymore or I won’t get it done in time. I get chest pains and it can be hard to breathe. My heart races and I get light headed. I am a teal ribbon.

            I know that things are hard. I know that life can throw you some crummy curve balls that can seem to send your life into a tailspin. I know this for a fact, but I also know that finding the little things that can make you smile in these hard times can make things so much better. I know that it can be difficult to find those things, but spending just a little time looking for those things can just as easily get your mind off of your bad situation. Even when you can’t find anything there is one thing you can do…

SMILE

            Yes, smiling can help improve your mood. Studies show that if you smile for sixty seconds, only a minute out of the 1,440 minutes you have in a day, can significantly enhance your mood. Making you happier. So I have developed a simple way to spread the smiles. I call it my High-Five System.

            My High-Five System is based off of three things. One, smiling for one minute can improve your mood. Two, smiles are contagious. Three, we can count to five. This only takes five minutes out of your whole day and they don’t have to be consecutive, meaning that you can do a minute or two here, a minute or two there, and so forth but you must do at least a minute or else the system is pointless. This is how it works; you start out by smiling on your own for one minute at least. You can do this by thinking about something that makes you happy, doing something that makes you happy, or anything along those lines just as long as it makes you happy and you are smiling for at least a minute. Then you smile at someone else and make him or her happy for at least a minute. Then another and another until you have made four people smile, not including your self. So now that you have completed this you have made a “high-five” by making yourself happy and four other people. Now go out and do it