Djeneconde

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Your smiles frame your features and light up your face. And when the corners of someone else’s mouth turn upward and their eyes crinkle — the telltale signs of a true smile, aka a Duchenne smile — it signals that they’re happy. These are things you inherently get. But when the masks went on, you felt it.

Without seeing one another’s expressions, you deeply understood the impact that grins, open-mouthed laughs, and subtle, secret smiles have on connections. The instantaneous signal of friendliness was missing. The energy was off. Suddenly, there was a need for over-gesturing to compensate. “Smiling is the most potent way to convey positivity and connect with others. It does that even better than words can,” says Michelle Wax, the founder of the American Happiness Project. “I witnessed the power of a smile as I drove cross-country to