Say Cheese … and smile. Smiling is a great way to show when you are in a good mood, or when you think something is funny, but did you know that it is also good for your health?

Smiling not only makes people more attractive, but it is also contagious, relieves stress, boosts your immune system, releases endorphins (natural pain killers), and helps you to stay positive.

According to helpguide.org, smiling and laughter decrease stress hormones and increase immune cells and infection-fighting anti-bodies, which boost your immune system. Smiling and laughing also release endorphins, which allow your body to relax and feel a general sense of well-being, and at times even inhibit pain.

According to Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” smiling indicates to others that you are friendly, approachable, and cheerful. “Smiles say, ‘I like you. You make me happy, I am glad to see you,” Carnegie writes.

The effects of the smile are powerful. “Smiling changes your own attitude, as well as others. It brings a more positive force in your life.”

Acting happy also tends to make people happier according to psychologist William James. “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, and act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”

So, as you stress out about your classes and final exams, smile – it will make you less tense and it may make things easier.