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Lie down in complete comfort and concentrate on the tone in your facial muscles Try to relax
your face completely and notice how the scowl returns on its own Each time you notice it
allow your face to turn placid again Notice how your expression is affected by your thoughts
and vice versa Focus on the areas that seem to tighten the most in response to negative
thinking As with the progressive relaxation exercise from Chapter proceed from the top of
your face to the bottom taking notice of any tension in the brow and around the eyes
cheeks nose lips and then the chin The more time you spend doing this the more aware
of your scowl you will become and the better you will be at controlling it After a few weeks
of facial awareness grimacing will feel uncomfortable and unnecessary like reopening
a wound
You might be a little skeptical You might not believe that the source of your mental
hardship is your frown Nevertheless imagine a diminutive monkey Imagine this monkey was
horrendously traumatized as a baby and ever since has trod around with a wry wince on his
little face Just imagine how this would affect his inner world his encounters with others and
their impressions of him He would inevitably perceive things as more adverse than they are
due to the powerful interrelationships between bodily expression emotional condition and
social feedback Monitor your face carefully the next time you are speaking on the phone Are
you unwittingly using expressions of pain and subordination
Chapter Reprogram Facial Tension
Illustration A B C D Monkeys wincing
The facial feedback hypothesis holds that facial movement and emotional experience
constantly interact with each other below the level of conscious awareness Charles Darwin
was among the first to suggest this He wrote The free expression by outward signs of an
emotion intensifies it On the other hand the repression as far as this is possible of all outward
signs softens our emotions Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our
minds Multiple concurring studies have supported this view For instance people asked to
hold a pencil between their teeth forcing them to smile unconsciously report better emotions
during this episode than control groups that held the pencil between their lips Botox injections
have been shown to decrease negative affect by reducing tension in the eyes and forehead
Individuals who have had Botox injections exhibit decreased activation of brain areas that
process negative emotions such as the amygdala Frowns tie you to aversive mental states
This suggests to me that a frown burned in from years of repetitive strain anchors you to them
Breaking My Nose Damaged My Facial Composure
A few days after discovering the wince on my face had a cup of coffee and bedded down in
my closet for three hours in a search for the source of tension in my mind was in total
darkness wearing noisereducing earmuffs in corpse pose with my breath metronome went
into the experience believing that some repeating thought pattern maintained my restlessness
waited for this pattern so that could observe it and figure out how to interrupt it However
the substrate of this pattern was not psychological as expected Instead it was again facial
must have been ignoring the sensation for years but it was clear and unmistakable
when it finally reemerged into consciousness Lying in the dark felt a tingling sensation in the
muscles surrounding my nose realized that these muscles were highly contracted The
muscles involved included the procerus the nasalis and the evator abii For the first time
could tell that even when thought was relaxing my face these muscles were still in overdrive
All at once felt practically like was hanging from the ceiling suspended by chains with a meat
hook piercing the bridge of my nose
It took an hour of meditative thought and exploration even to notice However once
became aware of the sensations around my nose they were impossible to ignore Within a few
more minutes realized that these sensations were the consequence of having my nose broken
inside a McDonalds at age The blow had shattered my nasal bone in several places and
fractured my septum and maxilla It split my nasalis muscle into two parts and it must have
also affected the nearby musculature and nerves realized that this injury had entrenched
my wincing
PROGRAM PEACE Self Care Exercises to Reprogram Your Mind and Body
For the first several minutes had no voluntary control over these nasal muscles eventually
found the muscles by trial and error over the course of an hour Actually first had to learn to
clench the muscles before could learn to relax them Each time actively tightened or relaxed
the muscle it would tingle and feel numb due to the nerve damage Of course my experience
was extreme but we all hold our faces in a fixed expression of emotional trauma
Having my nose broken damaged my nasal muscles and nerves and gave my face a dull
inattentive look that tried to compensate for by keeping my nose and eyes tight Especially in
social situations attempted to make up for the hypotonia with hypertonia to bring some life
and energy back to damaged facial expressions This made my social interactions neurotic
The unremitting wincing compromised my composure and social standing resulting in
sympathetic upregulation
Coincidentally this type of damage also happened to my cat Niko The little guy
approached a birds nest and a protective mother bird dove down and pecked him between
the eyes creating a deep gash down to the bone Nikos face looked dim for at least a month
because his brow and nasal muscles had been injured He looked disfigured for a few weeks
but eventually his eyes returned to their former state Luckily unlike me Niko did not try to
compensate for the damage by bracing This is why he didnt experience any lasting effects
Much of our facial tension comes from attempts to compensate for appearing haggard
unattractive or inattentive Sometimes we use our facial tension as an outward apology for
our appearance It often says Hey believe me know that dont look so great right now
Telling myself the following helped me know that Im ugly at times Im not afraid or
ashamed of appearing grotesque and in that retain dignity There is no reason to apologize for
my unsightliness with a grimace How do you brace your face when you feel ugly Identify it
and stop it
Submissive Mammals Have More Facial Tension
Of course facial bracing also comes from our perceived place in the status hierarchy More
dominant people and primates dont just brace their bodies less they also brace their faces
less By contrast the least dominant primates have permanent appeasement expressions
plastered on their faces
Introverted and shy people tend to become tense in social situations Their chakralike
modules develop tension quickly and they exhibit various forms of the energywasting
behavior discussed in Chapter They quickly start to squint sneer and hold tension all over
the body Social pressures add up fast and after just a few minutes of interacting with others
the introverted person starts to feel drained exhausted and like they want to escape Many
introverted people fake being extroverts until their trigger points have gone from latent to
active then they feel spent and try to get away from the crowd so that they can relax and
refuel know this behavior pattern well It was my social reality for years
Chapter discussed systematically removing extraneous bracing efforts from daily
activities Activity from Chapter asked you to notice your bracing habits while you brush
your teeth Now you must do the same thing for socializing How do you tense your face
unnecessarily when talking to others How does it extend down your neck and into the rest of
your body If you systematically eliminated the bracing from all your chakralike modules
during conversation and socialization you would become the most adept extrovert ever
Chapter Reprogram Facial Tension
You could work a room full of people without ever tiring Using the exercises in this book along
with selfawareness and diaphragmatic breathing you could make this your social reality