Comedy (and a Smile) is Good For You

This is post #300 this year. Here is Post #300 from last year, which is basically a list  of reasons that I have come to love being in Settle.

I've known a lot of people who are only happy when they are miserable, and are always looking for something to complain about. The glass is always too full or not full enough ensuring there is always something to complain about.

You should always smile at people, more often than not they will smile back and then at least two people are happier than before you smiled. Smiling release endorphins and takes much less effort than frowning, so a smile will just make things better.

Share a joke, or in our digital world share a funny video, YouTube is full of things that will make you laugh, but sharing it with friends just makes it better. Smiling is good for you , search Smiling Benefits on google and you find articles like this

Now I wasn't intending to write anything tonight ,  but things happen and you just want to share and smile. Seven Days In  has had over 340K visits since I started it twelve years back and last month there were 43K visits that's about one a minute over the last month.

I wanted to use this to share one of my favourite songs , "Comedy" by Liverpool band Shack , which I play often and it always raises my spirits. So go out there and SMILE .

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Please Smile

Today walking into town I saw a guy with a very fierce expression on his face . I smiled and said "Nice Day" but got no reaction. He then started cleaning his car. I then got on a bus and there was a guy looking miserable holding a scratch card. It may have been a winner but probably not, but he didn't look happy. I hope it was a winner and I hope he ended the day smiling.

Smiling releases endorphins and makes you feel better, and makes you better able to do whatever you want to do.

I've passed 900K on my Million Step Challenge but today has been an absolute trial. Firstly my phone seems to be losing and not recording steps. One example is first thing this morning that I took Fiona's phone upstairs for her and that registered 92 steps, mine registered 5 steps , and that's what it was on before I picked Fiona's phone up. Yesterday it registered 25 steps from bus stop to home , when it should have been 200 steps. I went for fish and chips on Friday , that's well over 2K steps , my phone decided I'd done 1K. So this is a little demoralising.

Then I've started feeling drained like all the strength is leaking from my arms and legs. If I can keep going for 20 minutes then I can overcome it, but it's like walking through treacle for 20 minutes. I won't let this combination of negativity stop me from completing the Million Steps by the end of July but it does feel like I'm pushing against something, but it won't stop me.

So an appropriate song would be Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" , I know it's Sunday and tomorrow  is Monday, but it's another week, another challenge. Push on my friends , push on.

Just Smile ... You Know It Makes Sense

Over the past couple of days I've noticed a lot of smiles and a lot of glum faces. The people are all in similar situations. I don't know what their situations are but I find even (and maybe especially ) when things are not good a smile makes YOU feel better and it becomes contagious. Generally if you smile and someone , they will smile back at you and you will both end up feeling better.

I know I've written about this lots in the past and I may be repeating myself and you may read this and thing "Oh No he's going on about smiling and being happy AGAIN!". I make no apologies.

I know there are people who are only happy when they are miserable (often centred on Manchester .... only joking) , but it makes me feel much better when people are happy, so maybe I'm being more than a little selfish,

Beautiful

Just a thought one of my favourite albums of the moment is Manchester's Improving Daily by Edward II  , and it really is one of the most beautifully produced albums I've seen in my life. It retails at the same price as any other CD but when I got it delivered the package was secured by sealing wax and you can see what it looks like on one of my Instagram Posts here. It really is a beautiful package so I will use a song from it "A Humorous and Interesting Dialogue" that was used in support of the NHS.

But the weekend is almost over , so if you are with someone smile , and if you are going to work tomorrow , smile, and your day will be much much better.

Every smile you give , you will get back in spades. Enjoy my friends.

I Love Seeing People Smile

I love seeing people smile , I love seeing people happy and I love smiling and being happy. Seeing a smile is infectious , I always smile back and sometimes I smile at people and they smile back at me. Yes the context has to be right  (I watch Gotham and have seen some very worrying smiles) , but a smile does make you feel better.

I know society is not good at the moment and I am hopeful we can progress , I detest spitefulness greed and idiocy which seems to be the modus operandi for the government , but my friends and their friends are positive and pleasant people. I love going into work and the only pressure is to get the job done well and that means that there are plenty of opportunities to smile at work as there are lots of wonderful people that I work with.

It does help that the weather is generally summery at the moment , I woke up early and , the sun is streaming through the window although I am still very tired so will be going back to bed after this.

Steffen .. Exit Stage Left with two chairs

There have been a lot of free concerts in South Shields and tomorrow UB40 play Bents Park in South Shields , I tried to get to The Proclaimers and Lindisfarne the other week but I was a bit late and the gates were shut, and there were still huge queues outside , and I was amazed at the number of people complaining that the gates had been shut . It was very popular and public safety is paramount. Oh and my friend Steffen Peddie is playing The Customs House tonight ... now he WILL make you smile (and laugh loads).

Anyway I chose UB40's Sing Your Own Song as it always makes me feel good , and I hope it does the same for you.


Anyway , the weekend is just starting , so smile lots and enjoy other peoples' smiles. It's a simple concept and I know some people are only happy when they are miserable (Usually Mancs and soap opera characters... try Coronation Street and Eastenders, although I have met some brilliant Mancunians in my time such as John Cooper Clarke and others)

Smile Please

Smiling makes you feel better . You may feel you have nothing to smile about , but do it and something good has happened. You smiled. And That's good , so you can smile again. A smile causes the release of the same endorphins as a bar of chocolate, without the calories.

At work there are three people who ALWAYS have a smile on their faces , they raise my spirits and I'm sure they raise others spirits. I also know that these people have not had the easiest of times but they have found happiness and spread it around , making others happy.

If you smile people tend to smile back and then you raise each others spirits and they day gets better. Whatever you are doing gets easier, you get inspired , you work better and you just do better.

There are those who don't return smiles and you cannot force people
to be happy, but the more people who do smile , well they can spread it to the ones who don't think they can smile.

I've included OK Go - This Too Shall Pass , cos that WILL make you SMILE . :)

BE HAPPY

It's Monday night so I want everybody who reads this to smile at as many people as you can tomorrow. It will make your day and their day far better.

Tomorrow

SMILE !!!

You will love it and people will love you for it.

I Love It When You Smile

Really I do. I go on about looking for the positives , and being positive , but I never really know whether you believe me or take what I'm saying seriously , after all I try not to be too serious. The main yhing I am serious about is being happy and I want  you to be happy to.

This weekends started for me with the amazing BowieBall at Vamos and has been a wonderful time of relaxing , wandering , wondering , playing Bowie songs , remembering the riffs for Rebel Rebel and Ziggy Stardust,  then listening to "Nothing Has Changed" while updating the website Song of The Salesman.

Long Flowing Robe

Music is a great thing for lifting you , making you feel good , and though I have been talking Bowie I am going to include Todd Rundgren's "Long Flowing Robe" as a song which I first heard on a Bearsville EP I bought and it still stays with me as a beautiful song love found and lost and found  again that makes me happy and brings a smile to my face, but with a tinge of sadness.


And listening to this reminds me of the Utopia Song "Feet Dont Fail Me Now". Both have killer choruses so you can have both.








So now go and find something or someone that makes you happy and makes you smile . do it and your day will be better and if it is a person , their day will be better too.

Some More Things That Make Me Happy

I was quite pleased that this post here has started to get some more views . It is important to me because it reminds af things that bring a smile to my face and just make my heart leap a little. Todauy I am lucky to be home having managed to escape the worst of the Cumbrian Weather and Lorry crashes , but still the journey took an extra two hours on a 90 minute journey., details here on the BBC site.

It's a friend's birthday today and I always try and post a mybe appropriate song on Facebook , and while this song is not a birthday song , it always brings a smile to my face (as do a lot of Big Daddy covers) . Their cover of Once In A Lifetime is a total delight

Music can always lift you but other things can do to such as:

You Know What To Do

• Reading A Book
• Meeting A Friend
• Watching A Film
• Going For A Walk
• Visiting A Museum
• Going To The Theatre
• Socialising
• Anything that puts a smile on your face

Smiling is contagious , you start doing and others will soon follow suit.

So tomorrow smile lots and make this world a better place

A Smile Just Makes Things Better ... Especially With Eeyore

I was a little stir crazy last night and so went into town to Trillians and the Tyneside Bar and Cafe where I had some lovely Minestrone soup. There was a girl at the bar with her boyfriend , we caught each others eye, I smiled at her and , surprisingly she smiled back. It was fleeting but uplifting moment.

Eeyore Makes You Happy

Today I was walking up our road a girl came out the dentist , I smiled at her , she beamed at me , a two second thing but certainly made me feel much better. Had good news from various sources , always glad to hear of my friends having a good time.

Smiling is really good for you , even when things are going wrong find something to make you laugh and grin.

If I hadn't gone out last night I wouldn't have seen the girl at the bar , I will never see her again , but the lift her smile gave me will be part of me forever, and I think Eeyore always makes people smile.....