A Muslim woman and friends take a selfie photo after Eid al-Adha, the

"Feast of Sacrifice" that commemorates the Prophet Ibrahim's faith, in

Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016. Eid al-Adha marks the end of
hajj.

If you smile enough, and see yourself doing it, and share it with friends and
family, you may actually make yourself happier, at least according to researchers
at theUniversity of California at Irvine reporting in the journal Psychology of
Well-Being. The team tracked 41 college students' moods for a week before they
downloaded a survey app on their smartphone and were divvied into three groups:
those asked to take a selfie every day, those asked to take a daily photo of
something that normally makes them happy, and those asked to take a daily photo
of something they thought someone else would enjoy and send it to that person.
By the end of the month everyone reported improved moods. The researchers
were tracking a broad range of mood measures2,897 in all, ranging from
comfortable to reflective and appreciativethat the students documented
throughout the month, reports Mother Jones.

Specifically, they found that the selfie takers became more confident, the people
who photographed objects that made them happy became more appreciative, and
the people who took photos for others became calmer and more connected. The
overall results did not surprise the team, the lead researcher tells Live Science,
though "we were surprised to find that participants who took photos that made
other people happy and sent the photos became significantly calmer." One
possibility: feeling more connected to others has been shown to increase
calmness. Either way, snap awayso long as you do it in moderation, as the Daily
Lounge reported last year.