You Can Choose How Your Face Looks

Your face is the outward reflection of your emotional state. Frequent feelings solidify into permanent features. This is the mechanism of physiognomy.

"I was born with a resting bitch face"

No, you are a bitch.



"Keep making that face and it'll get stuck like that" is what they say, and that is exactly how it works.

Most people strive to be better. This is strictly an internal process for almost everyone — "I must be more kind"

You should simultaneously work the external angle as well — "I must smile more"



Think about what you think is "off" about your face. You have probably only considered this materialistically up until now, your face deviates from the beauty norm somehow, and that's it. But you must consider how your attitude affects your face.

Lips? Talk more, be honest, don't censor yourself.

Eyes? Learn to express happiness as well as sadness through your eyes, not just alone but in public. Your eyes are the window to your soul and that works both ways!

Thin face? Smile, chew, shout!

Stand in front of a Mirror. Smile wide. You can literally feel how muscles are pulling on your face, making it wider.

It takes time to build neural connections with the facial muscles, and feeling the skeletal structured underneath, but you'll get there faster than you think.



Whenever you are feeling something extraordinary, like if you're super happy, hyper-emphatetic because you just did MDMA, won the lottery or just fell in love, take a look in the mirror and see how your face looks.

You will be surprised to see how different you appear. This could be you everyday!

It's like looking in the Mirror when you have a pump in the Gym. What you're seeing could be your new normal.

I don't condone face exercise regimens because this is about expressing your feelings through your face, it should never be about "LookzMaxxxing", though that will be the end result anyway. An expressive, non-rigid person is a pleasant and beautiful one.

What you need to do is strengthen your control and connection to all face muscles, because when you have them under control, you will intuitively start using them to express yourself.

You can work towards naturally holding a certain face posture just like when you work towards straightening your back.

Periodically remind yourself to adjust in the desired direction, don't make a big deal out of it, simply do it when you spontaneously think about it, and then pretty quickly it will become your new natural state.

Mental Focus

If you tighten orifices (mouth, eyes in particular) you increase your focus. This is the face of an intelligent, thinking man:



You would do well to have a tightened mouth when resting.

Eyes should be fully relaxed (work on this. important to learn), but when you need to, you should be able to focus your eyes like lasers.

You think Sean Penn just naturally looks like this? That'd be as ridiculous as assuming bodybuilders are born with enormous muscles. I can bet that this man has spent thousands of hours in front of a mirror. I salute him for his excellent work, just like Arnold with his physique.



You can have any face you want, including ones you can't even make in front of the Mirror (yet)

The only way to win is to experiment.

I had asymmetry between my eyes because of an old injury. Tried to adjust them so they looked the same, it was really hard and I made slow progress.

Then I cured it in a few days when I finally figured out how to do it..

All I needed to do was to close my strong eye and look a few minutes through my weak eye a couple of times per day, a few days later I was "cured"

The problem wasn't just eye muscles, it was the neural connection between Brain & Eye that needed strengthening.

Upon fixing the root cause, I started 'leading' (we always lean to one side) with the weak half of my face more, which further balanced my face.

Changing your face is a life-long mission of self-growth, not an "exercise plan".

Keep an open mind and make observations about how you look in different emotional states. Connect with your muscles. Exercise muscles of interest for you, when you feel like it.

Looking in mirrors is helpful, but you must like what you see. This is you, and you must appreciate yourself exactly as you are! You know how body-conscious people hate showing their body? Well, if you hate having your picture taken, you are face-conscious.

Body-conscious can be cured by getting a nice physique. Being face-conscious can be cured by looking like the person you know you're supposed to be. When people go to the gym, the main motivation is to work towards an aesthetic target. When it comes to our face, we are unfamiliar with such a concept!

"This year I will be really kind and loving so that my face will become beautiful" says no one.

But they should. They should all say it.

Tongue Posture

You must have proper tongue posture at all times. Tip of tongue against back of front teeth, tongue against roof of mouth.



This is called mewing. Not only is this the natural position of your tongue, it will also make sure that you breathe through your nose, which is incredibly important for your health and wellbeing, as you will learn later in this article. But first, let's see some results from mewing..





The photo above was posted on Reddit, you can read it here with further information.



This was also posted to Reddit, check it out here.

The 36-year old above has written about what he did on Medium, check it out here.

The impressive change above is from Reddit, check it out here.

If you want to learn more about mewing, you should start with this comprehensive guide.

Nose Breathing

The only time you should open your mouth is when you speak, sing or eat. Breathing is done through the nose, even in strenuous exercise!

Breathing through your mouth will make you dehydrated, fatigued and dumb: mouth breathing lowers IQ ^[6] and this is no surprise, as the mechanisms are well known: nasal breathing increases circulation, blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, slows the breathing rate and improves overall lung volume^[7]

Chewing

Our ancestors spent hours every day chewing. Chimpanzees chew for six hours daily^[8]. Nowadays, we barely chew at all! The average American spends 90 minutes^[9] daily eating and drinking, I would be surprised if more than 15 minutes of those consist of chewing.

That's a shame, because not only does chewing improve cognition^[10] it also improves food digestion a lot. This isn't just about your teeth crushing food, your saliva contains enzymes which activate nutrients and pre-digest everything you eat. Chewing is also linked to reduced heart burn^[11], weight loss^[12] and lower stress levels^[13]

On the negative side, excessive chewing will induce headaches^[14] which I believe is due to subtle shifts in your cranium: your entire head will adapt to increased chewing, and this is a process that can take years. Go easy and increase intensity and frequency gradually.

Chewing Gum

Did you know that humans have enjoyed chewing gum for as long as we have recorded history? The oldest I could find was 10 000 years old^[15] and it was a piece of birch resin found in Husebly Klev on the island Orust in Sweden. The person chewing on it was a child, judging from the size of the teeth.

Back in the day, we used to chew on bones to eat them alongside the marrow inside: a far cry from today's processed diet. Monkeys do not chew gum, with their diet there is no need to, but they will chew a gum if you give them one. I read that they get bored with it after a few minutes and put it on their head instead..

During all of human history, we have chewed sap from trees. In modern society, that is supposedly richer and materially better than ever, what do we chew? Some synthetic crap filled with xenoestrogenic neurotoxic sweeteners and God knows what else.

I tried to find out what most gum is made out of. I went to the website of their industry organization, ICGA:



They re-assured me multiple times that all ingredients were legal and that it was always a, and I quote: "chewable matrix" and that it's up to each company to choose between using synthetic plastics such as petroleum wax, polyethylene, isobutylene-isoprene copolymer or natural sources such as trees.

So, what do you think most gum looks like, plastic or trees? Do you trust them? They certainly don't advertise what they make the gum from..



Make sure you're buying quality chewing gum. Things to Google (in your language):

-> Tree Chewing Gum
-> Natural Chewing Gum
-> Mastic Gum
-> "Falim" (product name)

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References:
[1] Reddit: Mewing Case Study #1
[2] Reddit: Mewing Case Study #2
[3] Adult Faces Can Change (And It'S Not That Hard)
[4] Reddit: Mewing Case Study #3
[5] The Ultimate Guide to Mewing
[6] Mouth Breathing Lowers IQ
[7] Lancet: Nasal Breathing Benefits
[8] Chimpanzees & Chewing
[9] USDA: Average Time Spent Eating
[10] Chewing Improves Cognition
[11] Chewing Reduces Heart Burn
[12] Chewing Lowers Caloric Intake
[13] Chewing Reduces Stress
[14] Chewing Gum & Headaches
[15] 10 000 Year Old Chewing Gum