How Your Facial Expression Impacts Your Mood And Energy

Have you ever noticed how smiling (even when you don’t really mean it) can make you feel better? Or how frowning can deplete your energy and make you feel totally drained? That’s not just something that’s in your head – the fact is that your facial expression actually has a huge impact on your mood and energy levels, strange as it might sound. 

If you’re not convinced, there’s science that backs this idea up – it seems that the way you hold your face can trick your brain into feeling different emotions, shifting everything from your stress levels to your overall energy, so if you’re looking for an easy way to boost your mood, it could all be in your face. Read on to find out more. 

Your Face And Brain Communicate

Most people think emotions happen first and then the facial expression comes afterwards, so if you feel happy, you smile because of that feeling. And when you feel angry, you frown to show how you’re feeling. But the truth is quite different – the truth is that it actually works both ways. 

There’s something called the facial feedback hypothesis which basically says your facial expressions send signals to the brain just as the brain sends signals to your face to make expressions – it happens both ways, in other words. So when you smile out of nowhere, the brain thinks you must be happy and releases feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, and when you frown, your brain thinks you must be upset, so it sends out stress hormones as a result. So as you can see, forcing yourself to smile even when you don’t feel like it can actually lift your mood. 

Resting Face Is Important

You’ve probably heard of resting face (some people’s are happy, some are more grumpy-looking, and so on), and that’s important to bear in mind because your default facial expression can impact not just how others see you, but also how you feel. 

If you’re constantly holding tension in your face, furrowing your brow, frowning and scowling, you’re reinforcing the idea that you’re angry or upset, and those stress hormones will come out again. On the other hand, keeping a neutral or slightly lifted expression sends positive signals, helping you feel more at ease. If you’ve got a naturally rather frowny face, a treatment like Botox from Elan Skin could be the answer as it’ll smooth out your frown and your brain won’t get the stressed signals anymore. 

Tension In Your Face Means Tension Everywhere

If you’ve ever ended a long day feeling completely exhausted even though you didn’t really do anything (at least not anything physical), then it could be your face that’s to blame. The fact is that we carry so much tension in our facial muscles without even realizing it, and if you’ve got a tight jaw, furrowed brow, and you’ve been squinting at screens all day, you might find that all builds up and leaves you feeling mentally and physically drained. 

The key here is to actively check yourself at various points during the day and if you find you’re tense, do what you can to de-stress and loosen up.  Check you facial expression: relax your jaw, smooth out your forehead, and let your face soften – it sounds like a small thing, but it can make a world of difference to how you feel.