While reading through Chapter 13, I decided to research more into matching facial expressions to emotions. As I was reading through information, I started thinking about the every day experience I have with judging a person's emotions through their eyes. I've been told that when I get angry, my eyes can shoot killer looks at people. The saying that someone's eyes are twinkling is a true statement. You can see happiness, despair, grief, and fear while looking in a person's eyes. Have you ever noticed someone smiling, yet the smile doesn't quite meet their eyes? When someone is tense, you can see the strain around the eyes as well. But did you know that you can also control your moods through your eyes?
According to trans4mind.com, if you work on making your eyes calm and blank, your emotions will follow suit. The website relates this to the eye of a hurricane: calm and in control while everything around it is insane. The key to remaining calm and collected is to mentally tell your eyes to relax. You essentially want to make your eyes blank and emotionless. Emotions are supposed to become suppressed, so that you can become rational and tranquil. Relaxing your eyes is also supposed to help with breathing techniques.
So, if you are ever in a situation where you either do not want your true feelings known, or you want to keep a cool head on your shoulders, mentally command your eyes to relax. Focus on deep and even breaths, in and out, and then relax your body. The website says to just study, practice, and follow these steps, and you can have a peaceful, tranquil mind!
I'm one of those people who stare into people's eyes when we have conversations. I completely understand when you said, "Have you ever noticed someone smiling, yet the smile doesn't quite meet their eyes?"
ReplyDeleteI also make eye contact very much. If you pay attention and really observe a person's body, tone of voice, facial expression and yes, especially their eyes you can tell how they are really feeling most of the time. This is also a good way to see if their body language, eyes and what they are saying all agree; if not, you know they are lying.
ReplyDeleteWow...really interesting post. While it's obvious that the eyes play a big role in expressing emotion, it didn't occur to me that they also play a role in how we experience emotion. I'll be sure to try that relaxation technique!
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