Sugar Blossom

How To Improve Your Face :-)

Your face is usually what others see first of you. You may be wear­ing the most impeccable clothes, walk like Greta Garbo, study your every gesture - if your facial expression remains closed, if it’s vacant or if your mouth is pursed with tension, you will have no success attracting others.

So let’s spend a little time discussing the “mask” we present to the exterior world every day (did you know that the word “personal­ity” comes from “persona,” which means mask!)

Get rid of your mannerisms

We almost all have certain mannerisms. Some people blink too often, others frown or wrinkle their nose for no reason, some people are constantly biting their lips, and so on.

Mannerisms are the physical manifestations of psychological prob­lems, often with deep underlying causes. What can you do to get rid of them?

Find the cause

Ideally you would, with the help of a therapist, look for the cause of your mannerism.

“I’m not going to consult a psychotherapist just because of a ner­vous tick!” you say.

Why not? If a mannerism is ruining your life by making you look ridiculous, if people make snide or condescending remarks - do some­thing about it!

If, on the other hand, you consider your mannerisms too mild to make you the butt of other people’s ridicule, or if you already know what their causes are (left-handed people, for example, often have a twitch in their eye) then here are a few instruction you can follow to control them, or even get rid of them completely:

-Pull you hair down so that it covers as much of your face as possible. Imagine that the hairs touching your forehead and cheeks are live “twitch detonators.”

-Get your eyesight checked regularly by an ophthalmologist . It’s very important.

-Wear sunglasses (good quality, of course!) when the sun is strong

- and ONLY for the sun.

-Massage your face every day, using the ends of your fingers and moving gently upwards. Use non-greasy cream to massage (men too!). Creams with a Vitamin E base are excellent for the skin, and aren’t greasy at all.

-Smile often, laugh out loud, let yourself feel joyous. There’s noth­ing better than relaxing for getting rid of nervous mannerisms.

Be aware of the way you look at others

What kind of gaze do you have? Steady or shifting, warm or ice cold, straight, amused, sad…? Have you ever counted the number of adjectives there are to describe a person’s gaze? Thousands!

You must have noticed that in most novels, whatever their liter­ary merit, if there’s ever a single trait mentioned about a character, it’s their eyes. Many authors omit detailed descriptions of their char­acters, but always, without exception, furnish the reader with some indication of the character’s gaze, eye color and shape.

Eyes are the primary intermediary between our brains and the exterior world. They are given special consideration in mythology ­you may have heard of the “third eye” of the Orientals, or the Cy­clops with their single eyes in Greek mythology.

All this to let you know that you must absolutely not neglect the way you look at people. Eye contact is one of the main ways your personality is expressed.

How should you look at others?

Popular opinion decrees that a shifting gaze is the reflection of a shy, or even dishonest personality, while a frank, steady gaze auto­matically denotes strength and goodness. In reality, it’s more subtle than that.

Shy people often have an aggressive, almost insolent way of look­ing at others. They feel constantly on the defensive, persuaded as they are that others consider them to be inferior. So they try to com­pensate and assert themselves by adding an element of disdain to their gaze. This is a mistake! Aggressiveness, disdain, insolence or arrogance can betray a lack of security just as easily as a lowered or shifting gaze.

If you always force yourself to look people in the eyes, you may find yourself staring and making other people uncomfortable. They in turn react by escaping, or by becoming aggressive.

You may know that many mammals, notably cats, use eye con­tact as a preliminary to attack, which follows in due course - the first cat to lower its eyes signals its submission to the other. It has been reported that looking certain species of monkeys in the eye provokes them to rage.

Here’s an exercise to help you direct, and judiciously control the fire in your eyes.

How to develop an “irresistible gaze”

1. Get comfortable in front of your mirror and look at yourself.

2. Run your gaze over your entire face, observing the corners of your eyes, your forehead, the base of your nose, your chin and cheeks.

3. Come back to your eyes. Look yourself in the eyes, concentrat­ing your vision on the area around your eyes. Persevere for a few minutes. Do the exercise regularly, once or twice a day if possible.

Some people complain that they find it tiring to stare at another person for any length of time. Our eyes are subjected to a lot of stress.

They are damaged by the gasses and toxic pollutants in our envi­ronment, by the negative effects of certain kinds of lighting, by the sun’s rays, by certain common activities (reading, working with a computer screen or a microscope, doing fine sewing or embroidery, driving at night, etc.) Doing eye exercises is an effective way to com­bat what is called “ocular fatigue.” Here’s one that’s very easy - you can do it practically anywhere.

Exercise: Strengthening the eye muscles

1. Sit or stand in front of a medium sized frame - it could contain a painting, a window, a screen, a mirror etc.

2. Keep your head completely immobile, and move your eyes to each of the four corners of the frame, going around twelve times. You’ll soon be unable to stare at an object or person for a long time without feeling an irresistible desire to look elsewhere.

3. If you’re problem is blinking too much, do the same exercise using a shiny surface.