Face Up To It

WHAT YOUR FACE IS SAYING

The face is our advertising, sales and marketing billboard – promoting us to the outside world. Personality type and an individual's intentions, are said to show in subtle ways in our faces – something we have been hard-wired to pick up on. So what is your face saying?

People are quick to make snap decisions about strangers. They will read your body language, appearance and facial features, for any signs that could give away your intentions. If you have a scowl or shifty eyes, they may take you as an unfriendly and potentially threatening person. On the other hand, bright, open eyes and a welcoming smile, will lift a face to make your appearance all the more attractive and approachable. 

Your face can be changed in a number of significant ways. Make up, facial hair, piercings and tattoos, are the obvious ways we can control appearance. While these modifications can help to get us noticed more, the greatest changes to how we are perceived, come from how we portray ourselves through expression – and this will be determined by how you feel inside.

Confidence is arguably, the greatest attribute to bring success into our lives. Having strong self belief and a conviction that you really have what it takes to get the results, can create situations where there's an almost foregone conclusion. Feel it and you will express it.

Working With What We've Got

Although face reading has been mostly debunked as a pseudoscience, more recent studies into facial features that could potentially give away personality and health secrets, have shown we do tend to make quite accurate judgements about dominance and actively seek out facial clues for trust ability. It's true that universal facial expressions can help us to understand how people are feeling, but the jury is out on the claim that facial features can accurately show the type of person we are inside. Our generics certainly play a role in how our faces look, experiences will largely determine our preferences but ultimately, our attitudes and lifestyles will be what creates the expressions necessary to convey our inner identity.

Sometimes, our inner thoughts can affect the way we are perceived to such a degree, that other people will have instinctively made up their minds about us. This can attract or repel people from our lives. Think back to the times you've felt angry – things likely didn't go well for you that day, as people avoided you or were less inclined to help out. Now think back to a time you were really happy – when the air smelt sweet and colours seemed more vivid - a time when life felt so good. Very likely, good things happened and other people gravitated towards you.

There have been a number of instances where I have observed the differences in other people's interactions with me - obviously reflected by my inner feelings. On occasion, I have even witnessed a complete reversal in my fortunes and changes in the ways people interacted with me - purely by my making a conscious change to my mood, attitude and actions, in order to portray more positive, outward projections. Surely, much of this expression from my inner feelings would have been picked up in my face?

And so it follows - the best way to gain another's attention, willingness to help or attraction - is to feel how you want them to see you: happy, self confident and open to the joys of life.

The Pursuit Of Fun

A QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

Too much of a good thing. Too much of the same thing and too much of doing the same good thing until it affects our ability to work and compromises our health. That's when something once good, ceases to be a good thing any more. 

There's many things that we can do to enjoy ourselves. When we do the same thing too much, it can certainly lose it's appeal but it might also be affecting our wellbeing. Before the monotony indicates where the fun has vanished, the negative effects may already have taken their hold. So, it's likely already time for us to keep a check on these things which we call 'fun' – to see if they really are still fun – then substitute the activities that are possibly having a detrimental effect on our lives, with some new pursuits of happiness. 

Summers are short – particularly in the UK. They are mostly focussed around grabbing some sunshine, meeting with friends and celebrating life. Concerts, festivals, bank holidays and crazy party weekends – these are the focus points regularly featuring in the lives of the young and chased-upon by the those getting older too. 

So, what is it that gives such an appeal to a weekend of abandon – either in a field, club or around a friend's house? I believe it is a right to enjoy our 'freedom', break some taboos and get a little too inebriated or miss out on some sleep over the weekend. Because, for many of us, the only time to fully enjoy ourselves, is on those two days that are remaining after a working week.

So, it's tough to go home early on a Friday night or stay indoors on a Saturday when our friends are going out – or do very little on a Sunday in preparation for another busy week at work, when it's known that the next five days will be mostly work, eat, sleep, repeat. 

What is much tougher, is to swap the drinking/partying lifestyle with other pursuits that make us feel as happy. What is there that's better than getting a little twisted, dancing, meeting new people and from what it feels like at that moment...experiencing happy fun times? It really does feel like the ultimate expression of freedom and the birth-given right for those lucky enough to not be living under oppressive regimes or in dangerous war-torn parts of the world. 

What alternatives are there – so readily available and relatively in-expensive? What can give as much lasting fun, reward and fulfilment? This question, over coming weeks/months, is what I intend to find out – to discover and to break away from the current pattern of abandonment, that becomes our pursuit of happiness in the summer months.