Did you get a sMILe Pebble? Just visiting wondering what sMILe in the ARENA is?
At Mackie Injury Lawyers (MIL), we pledge to sMILe in the ARENA of life - to sMILe to feel our best, sMILe to spread kindness to others, and sMILe as we show up to fight in the ARENA together - The ARENA of life.
You are in a fight to the death. Life is hard, it’s combat, we are all in the ARENA, no matter what our individual ARENA looks like. For you, for me, no matter what you do or are going through – it is hard, its combat, to the death. Always “be kind to everyone, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
So we put on our sMILe, our armor in this battle in the ARENA. A sMILe helps us, it helps others, and it changes the world. One smile, one pebble creating one ripple, that grows and touches others.
So sMILe, it activates endorphins, makes you feel better, sharper, calmer, better able to fight in the ARENA. sMILe, it spreads kindness, it makes you feel better, others feel better, both better ready for the battle in the ARENA.
What is YOUR ARENA?
Years ago, I lost my first jury trial. It destroyed me. I was burned out and broken before the trial even began – preparing for it all solo. But rather than listen to what my brain and body needed and rest, I hammered my pscyhe with a full throttle adrenaline rush of completing a jury trial that fell apart. I lost, I was wrecked, and I was alone. I have what is called complex PTSD from a life of trauma and a full blown jury trial alone was not the best remedy. No one critiqued me, the the worst critic was myself.
When I was broken, I came upon Man in the Arena (above). I realized the speech/quote isn’t just about people on the sidelines critiquing us, it is about the worst critic – ourselves. So, like a phoenix from the ashes, I have risen from the broken pieces to enter the arena of the courtroom again. At the bottom, I found It is not just gladiators in the colosseum or trial attorneys in the colosseum of court, we are all in a fight, we all have our own arenas that are just as real as any other fight to the death called life.
So, whether you are a gladiator picking up their sword to enter the colosseum, a trial attorney dusting himself off to enter the court, a person nervous and preparing for a work presentation, a student giving a speech, a depressed person using every bit of energy they can muster to get out of bed in the morning, or anything in between- we all have our arena.
May we never be the cold and timid souls on the sidelines critiquing others in the fight, may we always be the one rising in the ARENA. The weapon I have found to be the most effective in the Arena? Smiling.
Smiling? Am I serious? Yes. Don’t believe me? Try it
Not just with the mouth, unfurrow your brow, relax the muscles in your face, and give a genuine, warm, wide, smile. A quick way to unlock it is to laugh.
People are shocked when they find out how bad of an electrician I am…
What makes Switzerland such a nice country? .. I’m not sure but their flag is big plus
How much does a polar bear weigh? … Enough to break the ice.
See right there: did you feel your brain relax, de-tense, the guard come down? Did you feel the release?
“Life is like a mirror, Smile at it and it smiles back at you”
When we smile, “feel-good” chemicals are released. When you smile, your brain releases tiny molecules called neuropeptides which fight stress. Neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins act as mild pain relievers, anti-depressants, and can aid in reducing heart-rate.
Smiling aids in putting us in our optimal state for our fight to the death in the ARENA.
For us with PTSD, the limbic and sympathetic nervous system are locked in “horror without words.” There is no talking to it, it is a different system and it doesn’t have ears. There are grounding techniques and I theorize that the “feel-good” chemicals released by smiling (and laughing) aid in easing the systems which are locked during PTSD attacks.
We smile when we are happy but we can also smile to become happy. The smile is a gift, a way to naturally and powerfully hijack and jumpstart our brains into feeling better. When we smile, we have a different attitude, a different outlook, and our brain switches over from defense to offense.
A smile heals others as it heals ourselves. A smile is FREE – a warm smile to another costs us nothing.
When we are kind to others, a person is kinder to the next, that person kinder to the next – the smile is paid forward. The ripple is started and it grows and grows.
Your warm smile to another drops a pebble in this world – we should drop as many as we can. We never know the true effect, depth, or size of the ripples we create. But, we know that ripples are created and we know that we create them, the good and the bad.
Your smile can reach the first person you smile at that just really needed a pick-me up that day, or who knows, your smile could set off a ripple effect of kindness that made its way all the way to a person or veteran in a silent PTSD attack about to take their life. Your smile can save lives. So come with me and drop a pebble and Smile in the ARENA!
So let’s sMILe! Lets talk. Tell me what you think! See you out there, until then, sMILe 🙂
For more, you are welcome to check out SmileInTheArena.com – a site dedicated to this sMILe philosophy, with a portion of all proceeds going to veterans at the National Veterans Foundation.
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