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• About Us •
More than a smile - a message from Bron, our founder
I spent most of my childhood in a small outback town, where the most common piece of advise was to smile. It didn't matter if your life was falling apart or you were just having one of those typical bored kid in a small town type of days, someone would tell you everything would all be alright if you just smiled more. I hated being told to smile, and then Mrs Schumacher came to our school. Mrs Schumacher love acronyms, and she loved turning difficult situations into helpful lessons. My difficult situation was being told to smile and her helpful lesson was to help me create the acronym that would become the SMILE Project®. A reminder to Stop, be Mindful of what was going on and how it was making me feel, Inhale, Loosen up both body and mind, Exhale and Project my best self forward. A simple five step strategy that would change my life from that day forward, and go on to form the basis of every SMILE Project® program.
Fast forward 34 years. I'd been my mother's carer for 14 years. Her 'person' as she journeyed through a depression that took hold when my father passed away, into a dementia that finally took her life. I'd sought silent refuge in the hospital stairwell while the staff did what needs to be done when a patient passes away and I watched as as stranger raced toward me, taking the stairs 2 at a time. When he reached the landing I was standing on he paused, took a note from his pocked and held it out. It was a yellow post-it-note with a smiley face on it. He tilted his head and gave one of those smiles that seem to say 'I can see that you're hurting', and in a gentle voice said, "I know you don't need this now, but keep it for later, you never know when it might come in handy". I went through the behaviours of the SMILE Project®, felt a tear escape from my eye, said a quiet 'thank you' and put the post-it-note in my pocket.
It would be four difficult months before I would see the post-it-note again, still in the pocket of the coat I was wearing on that tear filled day, and I smiled at how right the stranger had been. In that moment that smile was indeed very handy. It served as a reminder that life moves forward, that I needed to lean into the SMILE Project®, that I needed to stop, take a deep breath and find my focus, to roll my shoulders and project my best self forward, what ever that 'best self' was in the moment.
I decided it was time to face the world head on, and for me that would mean sharing more smiles, having more random conversations and connecting with the world, and I would share my journey in a person journal that would, I decided, be very public. That afternoon I set up the SMILE Project® face book page - https://www.facebook.com/smilingproject
Sharing the stories on the facebook page inspired me to begin investigating why and how things as simple as a smile, a nod of recognition, a simple hello, a random conversation with a stranger, made me, and many of those I interacted with, feel that little bit happier. It led me to a degree in psychology, studies into positive psychology, neuro-science, habit change, humour as a therapeutic and leadership tool, laughter, mindfulness and meditation as tools for wellbeing, and even to Bhutan to study gross national happiness. It also helped me realise that, as annoying as being told to smile was when I was a kid, those adults in that small outback town were actually on to something.
Today I thank that stranger in the stairwell, all those well meaning adults and their annoying advice, and the amazing Mrs Schumacher. 2024 marks 2 decades of sharing simple strategies for finding joy and laughter, increasing wellbeing, and coping when times are tough, with audiences around Australia and overseas.
Check out our programs, contact us for a chat, join the movement.
Join us in our journey of putting the fun back into fundamental well-being.
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