Womanhood

Be Careful Your Face Might Stick That Way!

I don’t know if my mom actually ever said these exact words to me, but I do remember hearing them often as a child. Of course, I didn’t really understand what it meant and then when I did understand, I thought it was very unlikely to be true.

Fast forward to when I turned 29, I started noticing wrinkles in my forehead. I went for a consultation for botox. The Dr. told me I had severe indentations in my forehead that were pretty deep and that I also needed something for my lips as well.  She told me I must raise my forehead a lot with expression and purse my lips together because they both needed to be fixed.

I walked out of there with a lot to ponder. Severe wrinkles, botox at 29 and my facial expressions did all this??? She was right. I did raise my forehead a lot and I did purse my lips but I had never really noticed before she pointed it out.

Now, before anyone gets their panties all in a bunch. No, I have not had any botox or anything else done to my face. I had my first baby at 30 and have been just too busy to pay attention to any more wrinkles forming. Except when I occasionally look at an old photo that is say 6 years ago!

But one good thing did come out of that consultation. I went home and stared in the mirror. I found that when I held my face in the most relaxed form possible with a slight smile, none of my wrinkles showed. In fact, it smoothed out the lines on my forehead and my lips.

I started practicing this trick as often as I could remember throughout the day. Relax my face with a slight smile. The funny thing is, my husband will say to me when I am doing it, “Babe, you look really happy and at peace”. I just laugh to myself!

Now at 34, I am also noticing dark circles under my eyes and I will spare you the details of all the other changes going on throughout my body after 2 babies. I guess with every decade it will bring new physical alterations to our outside appearance.  I wish that I had a magic make-up brush that with each swipe, it made everything go back to the way it used to be. I guess I will have to settle for some good miracle working creams.

Or maybe, if I practice my relaxed smile enough, my face will stick that way!