Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Face it
Who needs a face lift? By overcoming frowning and other bad facial habits, you can give yourself a more relaxed, youthful appearance.
Appearances, as we know, can be very important - particularly when it comes to winning new friends, attracting lovers or influencing people. Yet our face might be conveying negative messages to those that we meet without us even being aware of it.
We get stuck in our habits of tensing our face and frowning subconsciously as well as 'facial freezing' where we hold tension in the forehead, around the eyes, cheeks, jowls and mouth. Our expressions are a powerful and subconscious in-your-face means of communication and these habits may be interpreted as 'unfriendly' signals by onlookers. They can also be very unhealthy and ageing by contributing towards the formation of wrinkles.
I’m not suggesting that we should endeavour to eliminate all lines from our face like airbrushed magazine photographs, because small wrinkles add character to our face! And frowning as such is not a problem when it’s part of a wide range of facial expressions. We love people who are open and expressive and characterful! Talking with someone who doesn’t respond facially is very unsettling. We have facial muscles for a reason, and we should use them!
However, facial tension can become harmful if our muscles are fixed and unmoving. Muscles are not meant to hold tension continuously, as this can not only affect our face and cause headaches, but also our posture and the efficient working of our whole body. Although we may not all want the rubber face of a TV comic, it does not mean that we should freeze our face into submission by botox. And who wants a face that’s got as much life as a block of cement anyway? This type of treatment effectively cripples our muscles, robbing them of their function to be expressive.
There are ways that we can help ourselves to have a worry free face, whilst also allowing our natural range of facial expressions. We can do this by changing our habits. And yes this can be done. It is your choice as to whether or not you release your frown!
Begin by consciously relaxing your face. Think of your face being soft, light and loose; opening like the stage curtains at the theatre. Think open and wide, but don’t stretch it. Also allow your lips to be relaxed; not pursed or tightened. Some mouth lines such as naso-labial lines above the mouth are caused by puckering and pursing so allow your lips to be soft, wide and voluptuous. You can also use your fingertips to gently ‘shimmer’ your facial muscles and mouth to make your face relaxed and free. Really loosen it as much as you can. Don’t worry….it won’t fall off!
Loosening up your face by consciously thinking this way will also help avoid unnecessary strain and reduce unwanted furrows. Trust me: without botox or surgery, there is still no need to have a face like a rucked-up carpet. If we can 'train' our face to be looser, it is likely we will not only be healthier, but look more youthful and become more appealing to others, since we are all attracted to people who are open and expressive.
Muscle-tone also has a big effect on our face. If muscles are not toned, the face may sag and make us look older. If the muscles are toned they will have a natural lift. But performing special exercises can cause problems of facial tension and stiffness. We don’t need to do these. All of our facial muscles tend to work together, so if we are more expressive with our faces in conversation, we are using all of the muscles in normal daily life, in a way that will help keep them light and free as well as toned and youthful. Using our full range of facial expressions during conversation is not something the British are renowned for, but by taking the lead from our southern European cousins we can help ourselves enormously. Speaking of which, the French as always have a lovely way with words; le fossé can be translated as a pit, and la fossette is a dimple; In other words, a little pit! So understandably, we don’t want too many of those!
But our face is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. What’s the rest of our body doing? It’s quite likely that we have other postural tensions and habits that cause us to stoop, slouch, get back pain, neck ache and generally have poor posture. And these tensions too, end up being expressed in our face!
According to skincare consultant Eve Lom, facial and neck tension also affects our lymphatic drainage; an important part of our body’s defense against bacteria and toxins. And when the jaw, neck and shoulders get tight, it makes us appear aggressive. Physical tensions can also effect our digestion, circulation and breathing. And when we don’t breathe adequately, we are denying our body the oxygen it needs to function well, nor are we clearing out toxins. This can contribute to stress and have a dramatic influence on our whole sense of well being, confidence and complexion. A short course of lessons in the Alexander Technique with a qualified teacher can be of enormous help in ridding ourselves of poor postural habits and improve our breathing. The one-to-one hands on work will help restore the natural poise we enjoyed as young children.
Caroline Laurence, London based craniosacral practitioner says that birth trauma caused by surgically aided delivery can compress the skull, and it can remain compressed throughout our lives unless properly treated. Forehead tension and frowning can be the result of this compression which also put pressure on the pituitary gland, and that can lead to mood swings, PMT…. and grumpy teenagers! Tension in the jaw such as gritting the teeth can force them out of alignment and also promote aggression. In the long term, this can lead to chronic exhaustion and strain on our whole system. We can see that our emotions and our physical condition are completely interrelated, and how this may be expressed in our faces!
But by improving our posture and 'freeing-up' our face in the ways described above, it is possible that we will also detect our mood lightening. Unnecessary tension is a down pulling experience that not only affects our posture but also our emotions. Whilst it can take over fifty muscles to frown, it takes less than half that, to smile. But smiling and laughing can positively affect our whole body. Smiling creates endorphins, making us feel happy which also has an uplifting effect on our whole well being and posture. So by improving our poise, our radiant smile will be coming from within!
Freely moving facial expression is an important aspect of communication which is why I am not a fan of treatments that freeze muscles. Look at the face of a young infant for example and we’ll see dozens of muscles in action, all jollying away and letting us know exactly how they feel. You might not want everyone to know what you’re thinking, but freeing up your face will bring noticeable benefits - to the extent that your friends might soon be asking if you’ve had a face-lift, an exotic holiday ….or found yourself a new lover!
