Every had someone tell you "turn that frown upside down!" Obnoxious advice? Maybe. But they might just be onto something. By now, most of us have heard of forced smiling — or the act of turning your mouth up at the ends into something like a smile — and how it can potentially turn your mood around by tricking your body into, essentially, think it's happy.Research has shown that smiling more, even when you have to fake it, can boost your mood, lower stress, bring your heart rate down, and give your immune system a boost. But did you know some people say the same is actually true of laughing?Reseachers wanted to test the positive effects of laughter, so they found some of the most stressed out people they could manage: Students.Researchers from Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa chose nursing students who exhibited high levels of stress due to their coursework and put them through a rigorous laughing protocol. Nursing is notoriously one of the most stressful college majors.First, students were surveyed on measures like their self-reported stress levels, the academic self-efficacy or confidence, and overall well-being.For the test group, a group of the students took a 40-minute laughter yoga courses once per week, for five weeks.Laughter yoga is a unique sort of yoga class that has four components, according to the study. First, a playful clapping warm-up. Next, deep breathing. Third, silly games, and fourth, laughter exercises. The idea is to force yourself to laugh — even literally saying the words ha-ha over and over — until eventually you start genuinely laughing and smiling. Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash Compared to the control group, the intervention group saw significant improvements in overall well-being and perceived stress levels after five weeks of laughing yoga.The findings from the new study line up with previous research about laughing yoga and forced laughter. Previous studies have shown laughing yoga, specifically, to be beneficial for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy as well as the elderly. This aligns with common sense, too. You can only say hahaha so many times before you start genuinely cracking up, and you're bound to feel fantastic afterwards.So far, the science says that regular forced laughter is a fun, cost-effective, and non-medicinal way of lowering stress and increasing well-being. Plus, if you try out laughing yoga, you get to tell people that you're going to yoga class when you're really just goofing around! Win-win.Are there potential downsides to forced laughter or smiling? Photo by Freddy Mishiki on Unsplash Forced laughter, especially in social settings, is a heavily studied phenomenon. Did you know there are four types of forced laughter, depending on the reason and motivation behind each one? Studies show that forcing a laugh can be a mixed bag. Intimacy maintenance laughter, or "a forced laugh used to brighten the atmosphere in a situation or to maintain or improve one’s level of intimacy with another," unsurprisingly has positive ramifications on our mental health. But expression control laughter, where we fake a laugh to hide a negative emotion, can have the opposite effect.It definitely begs the question — could forcing ourself to laugh or smile when we're stressed actually be harmful? So far, there's not much data to suggest a downside to something as gentle and fun as laughing yoga, but there is research that shows when sad people try to smile more it makes them feel worse in certain circumstances.And some people, whether it's supported by data or not, just can't get on board with trying to "trick" our minds and bodies into feeling a certain way. It's definitely not a concept that would sit well with truly dedicated yogis.Finally, when it comes to the stories we've all heard about forced smiling, it turns out the positive effects are probably a lot smaller than we've been led to believe anyway. Even the recent study on laughing yoga for stressed out nursing students, while definitely demonstrating an improvement in well-being, fell short of the massive effect you might expect.The takeaway? Forcing a laugh or a smile can be a good pick me up, and a solid everyday habit, like meditating. But it's best viewed as a short term solution and probably isn't going to cure your stress and anxiety all on its own.The ideal would be if you can find a way to genuinely smile and laugh every day. Talk to a friend, watch a funny movie, joke around with the kids.But if you have to start with a forced smile or laugh, it's better than nothing. Stress levels have been rising in America for years, so at this point, we'll take anything we can get!

John Reichart, 74, is on a mission to bring Christmas cheer and new memories to his wife of 53 years, Joan, following her Alzheimer's diagnosis. Joan was diagnosed four years ago with the disease. The couple got engaged on Christmas Eve, and Joan has been a lover of the Christmas season throughout their marriage. So Reichert decided to decorate every house in their Indianola, Iowa, neighborhood this year with holiday decorations and lights that he purchased out of his own pocket. His goal: to bring Joan joy and help her make new memories for them to share while she still can. - YouTube www.youtube.com Reichart asked each neighbor for permission before he began to decorate. “One neighbor thought I was kidding until I showed up at his lawn putting decorations up,” he told Iowa's Local 5 News.Reichert has painstakingly decorated each of the 17 homes on his block, complete with illuminated Christmas trees, snowmen, wreaths, snow flakes and more.A Marine veteran, Reichart has vowed to keep decorating until he physically is unable to do so. Unfortunately, he's not sure how much time that will be. Reichart shared that Joan's condition has continued to worsen, that she is forgetting how to brush her teeth and that she is "to a point of having more bad days than good.” "I love her with all my heart and soul. As long as she enjoys it, I'll keep doing it as long as I have the strength to do it. I'll do it every Christmas,” he told the news outlet. “Time is limited, time is short and so I want her to remember. This is something that she will remember.”And his wife is incredibly grateful for his love and care. “He means the world to me. Without him, I don’t know what I’d do,” she told the news outlet.With the entire East Franklin Avenue neighborhood decorated, Reichart has invited his local community to take a stroll or drive down the street to enjoy the display for themselves, noting that the lights will be lit from 5 to 11 p.m. everyday until the second week of January.To help recoup the cost of the lights and storage, the Reicharts' neighbor, Frank Ewurs, created a GoFundMe for John and Joan with a fundraising goal of $20,000."So many of you have already driven down our bright street and felt the love he has put on display not only for his wife, but also for everyone in the spirit of Christmas," Ewurs wrote on the fundraising page. He added, "Your generosity is helping make this incredible display of love and Christmas spirit possible. Every donation and kind word is a true gift."The couple is also asking for Christmas cards to be sent to them to help brighten their days this holiday season. They noted that they plan to read them every night before they go to bed, and will send thank-you notes to those who send a card in the new year. You can send them a card addressed to:John and Joan ReichartP.O. Box 133Indianola, IA 50125

If you want to know what it was like to be gay in the United States in the 1980s, an interview on ABC’s “20/20” where one of America’s prominent journalists, Barbara Walters, talked to 29-year-old Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein, is a great place to start. In 1983, Fierstein was the hottest thing on Broadway” with 2 hit shows: “La Cage aux Folles” and “Torch Song Trilogy.” But even though he was the talk of the town, Walters treats his homosexuality as if it is something foreign and threatening.At the time, Fierstein was a rarity in pop culture—an openly gay male celebrity and his “Torch Song Trilogy” dared to do the unthinkable: humanize homosexual relationships. Fierstein later found mainstream success in films, starring alongside Robin Williams in “The Birdcage,” a movie version of “La Cage aux Folles,” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.” In 1983, Fiersten sat down with Walters for a prime-time interview where he made the case that homosexuality wasn’t a deviant lifestyle and that it’s much more prevalent than most people think, especially in the arts. “What's it like to be a homosexual,” Walters asked the actor, writer and one-time drag queen, point-blank. “I don't know. I'm just a person. I'm a person who sees the world in the opposite light than you do, that's all. But I see the exact same world as you do. I assume that everyone is gay unless I'm told otherwise. You assume everyone's straight unless you're told otherwise,” he told Walters and the millions of viewers watching at home. See on Instagram Fierstein went on to dismiss the myth that homosexuality was caused by a strong mother and a weak father by noting that his brother was straight. He added that people must be born gay because LGBTQ people are found in every part of the world. “I mean you have to you have to start from the basics, 10% of the world is gay,” Fierstein said. “You got to stop with the ‘this is a sickness,’ ‘this is an abnormality.’ This is a normal thing that has gone on through the history of man. It has always been 10% of the population has never been bred out.”In the interview, Fierstein also debunks the notion that homosexual people can’t enjoy the same type of committed romantic relationships as heterosexuals. “Those are not heterosexual experiences and those are not heterosexual words. Those are human words. Love, commitment, family belong to all people,” Fierstein said. "It is the norm in the homosexual community. It is not the norm in what you see on the news and all that. But what you see on the news and what you see in print are the bars.”Fierstein added that when a happy lesbian couple stays together for 70 years, it doesn’t make the news. “Monogamy is as prevalent a disease in homosexuality as it is in heterosexuality. It's all the life choice that you make for yourself,” he joked.The interview is a fascinating time capsule of a world right before the AIDS epidemic when LGBTQ people began coming out of the closet in increasing numbers to help fight the deadly pandemic. In the interview, Fierstein, as one of the few out and proud gay male role models, was forced to share simple truths about gay life that, 40-plus years later, most people have come to understand. It took a lot of courage for Firestein to speak his truth on such a big stage, and he did so fearlessly and with love and humor. You can watch the entire interview here. - YouTube www.youtube.com

Sometimes new friendships appear when we least expect them. You can be out and about, minding your own business, when suddenly a small connection becomes the spark for something truly magical. Sure, these kinds of platonic meet-cutes might not get their own Hallmark movie, but anyone who’s ever experienced them can tell you they contain their own special kind of romance. For Raquel Benitah, that unexpected friendship came while ordering a Diet Coke at McDonald’s. This was the key ingredient to make “dirty soda”— a trendy beverage made famous by Mormon Wives which combines soda with some variation of cream. Opting for the less sugary route of Diet Coke plus a Fair Life protein shake, Benitah had planned on filming her taste-test, hence why she had been recording herself at the drive-thru. And it was a good thing she had been recording, because otherwise we would have never been able to bear witness to the “instant connection” with her soon-to-be-new-bestie Markelya Skelly. “Are you vlogging?” Skelly asks excitedly in the clip. Benitah confirms, sharing her plan to pour the Fair Life into the soda. Without skipping a beat, Skelly immediately asks “Are you trying that Mormon thing?!” and they both share a laugh. As Skelly recommends the “delicious” combination of Coke Zero and root beer, and Benitah promises to try it next time and “report back,” it seriously feels as though these two have already known one another for years. “I’m obsessed with her!!!!” Benitah exclaims while pulling out. And after she posted the video of their adorable echange, over 12 million other people were obsessed too. @raquelbenitah im obsessed with herrrrr ♬ original sound - Raquel Benitah “I love these types of interactions with strangers, it’s so sweet,” gushed one viewer. “Wait you’re totally besties now the energy is matching,” said another. After going viral overnight, Benitah drove back to McDonald’s to reunite with Skelly the next day, but sadly Skelly wasn’t working and management couldn’t give out her contact information. Benitah must have kept at it, because in a follow-up video, we see the two hit it off yet again. Skelly shares that McDonald’s corporate reached out to her, Benitah presents her with the gift of a Fair Life and jokes about starting a podcast…and of course, the two make plans to try Coke Zero + root beer. @raquelbenitah Replying to @Vanessa IM FREAKING OUT!!!! Sorry for the screaming, im way too excited ahhhhhh. dying that @McDonald’s ♬ original sound - Raquel Benitah Since that fateful day, Benitah and Skelly have been "inseparable," according to their interview with Today. In addition to planning little friend outings for the holidays, the two have begun creating more adorable content together, including the long awaited Coke Zero/root beer taste-test.While Benitah confesses that she actually hates the “bubble-gum” taste of root beer, she’s clearly having the time of her life drinking it with her new pal in the video below. @raquelbenitah Replying to @Tina ✨ BACK WITH OUR QUEEN FOR THE TASTE TEST YOUVE BEEN WAITING FOR !!!! @Persephone M. @mcdonald’s canada?? ♬ original sound - Raquel Benitah What a clear reminder that friendships are every bit as enchanting as a love affair, if we let them be. Because let’s be honest, no matter what way love enters our lives, it’s nothing short of a miracle…which always deserves to be celebrated—and in this case, recorded.

Most advertisements are purposefully obnoxious or annoying in some way, designed to grab our attention in order to sell us a good or service. But occasionally a commercial comes along to accomplish that same goal but in a more thoughtful way, with artistic beauty and a heartfelt message that taps into our humanity. Are such ads still trying to sell us something? Of course. Does that mean the people behind those ads aren't sincere in the messages they're trying to convey? Not necessarily, which is why people around the world are celebrating a 2-minute holiday spot from a German telecom company.The ad from Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, plays more like a short film than a commercial. As a version of "Shchedryk" (the Ukrainian folk song that gave us the melody for "Carol of the Bells) plays, we see two girls around middle school age, one dressed in red with a pointy nose and the other in blue with pointy ears, forming a friendship despite the panes of glass that separate them. The scene alternates between the joy of playing together and the clear message that their elders don't want them interacting with one another. The girls are determined, but they eventually see how limiting the glass walls between them are. The reveal of their gifts to one another at the end is hauntingly beautiful, with a powerful message.Watch "Bubbles": - YouTube www.youtube.com Breaking down barriers is a classic message but one that feels incredibly timely for our highly polarized present. The ad feels like it makes a subtle allusion to the Berlin wall, but the walls that separate these girls are perfectly transparent. They can see into each other's worlds, but can't get past what's separating them. The way they see the problem but feel powerless to change it feels like a fitting metaphor for today's divisions, as do the bubbles that surround the girls and their communities preventing them from fully communicating with one another.People found the video surprisingly moving. "It's the invisible wall that people build between each other because of perceived differences...nationality, religion, sexual orientation and how they perpetuate it by passing it on to their children.""The innocent and non-judgemental minds and hearts of children - so much that adults could learn from them!""Isn't amazing how it takes innocent children to take down the walls put in place by adults.""It shows that governments and small minded people cannot keep people apart forever. They can keep us apart for awhile but the human spirit does survive in spite of governments and small minded people.""Heart wrenching, and joy inducing all in one ad.""A knockout Christmas ad with a profound message for our time... Wunderbar!""Blue, red. This ad has me crying. I am struggling here in the USA. Merry Christmas to all around the world!"The tagline for the ad on the YouTube share reads, "Connections Begin When Barriers Break. ❤️?" Though the ad comes from Germany, the song lyrics being sung in English and the red and blue colors can easily be seen as pointing to American politics (which arguably impacts much of the world in direct and indirect ways). It's a good reminder that so much of what divides us are invisible barriers we've created and grown to identify with. Seeing those things through the eyes of children helps highlight how absurd it is to wall ourselves off from one another due to differences—an age-old human habit of prejudice that only leads to more misunderstandings and suffering. It might seem scary to shatter the bubbles we've built around ourselves, but when we do, we may find that what's on the other side isn't nearly as scary or awful as we've been led to believe.May we all find ways to break down barriers and embrace the joy of friendship in this season of goodwill.

An integral member. The post The Beach Boys songs written by Carl Wilson: “He brought dignity to the song” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The singer has had some very unexpected collaborators through the years.

She had a very different job before playing the Wicked Witch of the West.

The singer has had some very unexpected collaborators through the years.