Your brain moulds your face

The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly.
- Charles Reznikoff, poet (1894-1976)

This can be taken literally as well as metaphorically (which we might expect from a poet).

What goes on in our minds does affect our faces. The older we get, the more likely those fingers of our thoughts will mould our face.

Let's take the examples of laugh lines and frown lines. Laugh lines tend to form more when we are awake. Those who laugh or smile little have fewer laugh lines because their facial muscles do not form themselves into configurations that would create the creases we call laugh lines very often.

The more we laugh, the more laugh creases are likely to form on our faces. Since laughing is healthy, we should interpret laugh lines as being an indicator of good health.

Frown lines tend to form for many people while they are asleep. As we have little control over what our brain dreams at night, if it chooses to express concern over problems it considers serious, we might frown. As some dreams carry on for many minutes, if these concerned dreams continue for many nights, frown creases will develop between our eyes. Other lines may form on the sides of our mouth.

The elasticity of our skin when we are younger prevents it from developing permanent creases in our youth. Exceptions might be forehead creases that we may express unconsciously for long periods of time, either when we are awake or asleep. These are called primary lines, as opposed the the small lines that may form around the eyes as we age.

As we get older, our skin loses much of its elasticity and skin has more of a tendancy to remain in a position or condition that it has been in for periods of time. Frown or look sad for long periods of time and this will shown on your face.

Your mother may have told you not to pout or frown or your face would freeze that way. It wasn't true when you were a child, but it could be true in your adulthood.

Eyes have their own ways of expressing the conditions of our lives. In childhood those expressions may be temporary. As adults, the expressions may remain permanently.

Our eyes and our faces tell how life has played us.

Bill Allin
Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems, striving to help you understand how faces tell the stories of our lives.
Learn more at http://billallin.com