What, exactly, is your face saying?
Take a good hard look in the mirror. It’s difficult to do this, because you will be looking at yourself from straight on, which is not how most people see you (they see you in the ¾ view-half profile, half straight on). What does your hairstyle, hair color, facial shape, facial balance, and skin project about you as a person to the rest of the world?
This is important because our visual system comprises 60% of our brain, and our brain has multiple centers that are exclusively devoted to facial recognition. It’s not surprising that over time, humans have developed the ability to read intentions through expression, how to decide whether they would be enemies or had the potential to be mates, to determine what is beautiful and what is noxious in a person, and even to be able to read this from afar.
So it’s not surprising that this continues to happen in our daily lives: people read us, whether we like it or not, by our expressions, and the expressions we project. However, what we’re projecting doesn’t always equate to how we feel on the inside.
So, what does YOUR face say?
In the office, it’s not uncommon for me to hear a statement like this one: ” I’ve never felt more energetic in my life, but people are always asking me if I got enough sleep. And I have.” And they go on to say that more sleep doesn’t help them look better.
Or this one, from a man: “women continually avoid me because they think I’m an angry man.”
Why do the women run? It’s not because of that—it’s because of what his face is saying.
Take a look at these two pictures from a recent talk I gave.
The answer is D. This person with droopy eyelids looks tired— studies also show that people with droopy upper eyelids are perceived as less intelligent than those with eyelids in good position. Surgery can fix this.
The bottom line is as we get older, we don’t all age the same way. And it’s unfair to age and feel better than you look. We can help with that in any number of ways to help you put your best face forward.