Can I Stop Frowning?

Frowning: verb: Furrow one's brow in an expression indicating disapproval, displeasure, or concentration.

Do you frown? I am sure you do. Most of us do.  But how often we do it? It seems to me that we are going around the whole day frowning.

Yesterday, I went to supermarket to do groceries. While I was parking my small car in the parking lot, I saw a big BMW 5X SUV coming and parking next to me. And the driver was a lady in her middle age, nicely dressed.

While I am picking up the shopping basket from the entrance, I saw the lady walking in, with a visible frown in the face. I was wondering why she is frowning. What is that she does not like there. She was driving a very nice car, walking in an up-scale nice super market, and she has not yet encountered anyone in the store yet. Then I looked around and saw five other shoppers and each one of them had a frown of various shapes and sizes on their face.

After coming back home, I checked my face in the mirror. Yes, I also have those deep marks on forehead which comes from years of frowning. And I realized that all these years, I have inflicted the headache on myself.

You see, when we frown, we are contracting the muscles of the forehead. The blood supply is getting contracted and reduced. Done throughout the day, 100s of times in 24 hours, it will lead to headache and tension.  It invariably does.

It is not that when we have tension we frown. We frown because as we grow up, we become more irritated and combative. We forget to have fun with the little things in life. Have you seen a small kid frowning all the time? I have not. Do you see the teenager frowning? S/he is busy enjoying life, where is the time to frown? So when do we start this negative personal habit? I have no idea.

My suggestion to reduce tension and headache would be to reverse engineer the body and mind. I am teaching myself not to frown under any circumstances and tell myself “I am relaxed, I am happy” in my mind whenever I catch myself frowning. I think it will help me reducing those nagging headaches or tightness on the back of the neck.

Will you please try it for few weeks and tell me if there is any difference?