If you ever saw the musical, “Bye, Bye Birdie,” back in the ‘60’s, you will remember Dick Van Dyke singing and dancing his way through this song title.  I was in my high school’s rendition of this musical the year I graduated.  It’s a rather silly play, but it was fun to be in it.

But the phrase itself actually means to act happy even if you don’t feel that way.

It’s more like, look happy no matter what you are feeling.  Wear an acceptable mask.  It often makes me wonder how many people are wearing these happy faces that don’t mean it.

Maybe I am overthinking, but I often ponder the many different kinds of smiles there are.  And if you smile in a certain way it has a specific meaning as opposed to other smiles.  So putting on a “happy face” can be anything from a smirk to a cheesy grin, with many other versions in between.  Upon further thought, I have decided that what kind of “happy face” people choose to use in this circumstance, can tell something about their personality and the way they deal with other people.

For example, if a person is really sad, but wants to “put on a happy face” they may act in a joking sort of way with a fake laugh.  Or, if a person is sarcastic, they may use a kind of sneer.  But that is definitely not a happy face.  I like to really try to look happy even in hard times, because I believe that an attitude, (when positive), can help a person become that way.

In fact, “in the journal Experimental Psychology, research found that the physical act of smiling not only created internal positive feelings, but also caused participants to see the world around them in a more positive way, according to lead researcher Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, PhD, a research fellow at the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning at the University of South Australia.”  Wow!  That’s pretty cool.  And there are many other sources of this kind of information if you want to search it on your laptop.

So you see, a person really can put on a happy face.  The only thing one needs is the willingness to try faking it till you make it.  Aren’t computer searches awesome?