Five surprising health benefits of smiling

The surprising health benefits from smiling can significantly improve your health and also your mental health. There's great power in a smile and researchers now say it could change your life for the better.

A 2012 study from Psychological Science showed that smiling can reduce your heart rate and has shown to aid in stress recovery compared to those whose expressions remained neutral.

Habitually smiling can help put you in a positive mental space and even maintain it for longer, according to researchers at Warwick Business School; finding that happiness has a significant effect on productivity in the workplace.

Smiling can also help boost an individual's creativity. Researchers at the University of California found that men who were happier were able to problem solve with more solutions than those who were unhappy.

Even a forced smile can improve your mood. Psychologist Paul Ekman claims that pasting a fake smile on your face will improve your mood and reduce stress.