What's with that sour look on your face? Have you got nothing to smile about?
Animals like monkeys and apes have the same expressive muscles that we have. We aren't that unique in the animal world. A smile, or a frown expresses emotional info about your well being and is understood from culture to culture. No words need apply here. A smile means you are pleased, elated and happy. A frown means you are disgusted, sad or angry.
You have five pairs or ten muscles in total that can make you give a simple smile. Why aren't you using them? That's all it takes for a simple grin.
A simple smile, and it doesn't have to be a sincere smile, where you turn up the ends of your mouth. Doing that only takes two muscle pairs to raise the upper lip. The others are used primarily to turn up the corners of your mouth. It's not hard and most of the time smiling is done voluntary.
Contrary to popular belief, a simple frown or scowl on the other hand takes only three muscle pairs not five, only six muscles, one pair to lower the bottom lip and two pairs to lower the corners of your mouth, making it a wee bit easier to frown than to smile. Technically, the definition of a frown encompasses the whole face including the brow, making it wrinkled called the 'Furrowing of the Brow'. It's easier to frown than to smile but frowning uses muscles of the whole face. A little more exertion is needed.
So, the next time you notice you're frowning, ask yourself to turn that frown upside down. There's nothing better than seeing a happy face. You smile, they smile. They smile, you smile. It's contagious, a frown is not.A smile is positive, a frown negative. Which would you rather be perceived as; a happy camper or a disgruntled miserable old sod, eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment