Written and verified by the psychologist GetPersonalGrowth.
Last update: 15 November 2021
There are people who capture and enchant our soul. Their faces possess that emotional magnetism which, like the surface of a transparent lake, makes them capable of reflecting the nobility of a good heart and the empathy present in their eyes. People who make you think: “Just seeing you, my day is filled with joy“.
As Enrique Rojas, professor of psychiatry, teaches us, personality is always reflected on our faces, because "the essence of the person resides in the face". Our brain, nourished in its foundations with sociability and emotions, senses and remains influenced by those severe traits or by that gentle smile that envelops and soothes.
There are dull looks on which resentment and bitterness can be read, there are faces that show mistrust, but your face, your presence, gives joy to my days for the simplicity of your expressions extraneous to falsehood and always full of reciprocity .
The purest communication, the most sincere and meaningful, is not transmitted through words, but through gestures. Every facial movement comes from our deepest being, from that emotional world capable of connecting with those around us, while we are often not even aware of it. We invite you to reflect on this issue.
Emotions are conveyed by gestures, not by faces
Although we are certainly used to hearing that “the eyes are the mirror of the soul”, it is necessary to point out some aspects that will not only be interesting, but also useful. Paul Ekman, a pioneer psychologist in research on facial expressions related to emotions, explains in one of his studies that faces can lie, because real emotion is transmitted through gestures.
- According to Ekman, people are capable of expressing up to 18 different types of smiles. The most genuine is the one called the “Duchenne smile” (the muscles of the mouth contract, the corners of the lips rise a lot, the cheeks contract and wrinkles form around the eyes).
- Smiles act as a social "lubricant". However, not everyone appears sincere, nor do all faces, attractive as they may be, arouse confidence in us. Surely you yourself will have experienced it sometime: there are small micro-gestures that, almost instinctively, disturb us and distrust us.
- Another curious aspect to keep in mind is that we also have our own stored "gestural experience". Expressions from our parents, friends or former partners remain stored in our brains along with an emotional component of pleasure or displeasure.
All of this will determine, almost instinctively, how some people and their faces produce one sensation or another in us. Our face is a whole book of complex gestures, which others will also interpret according to their own experience.
- Empathy is the art of understanding and closeness, it facilitates communication, comfort and problem solving. It is an essential dimension that is not transmitted only in words. The gaze that knows how to understand and intuit is a wonderful way to hug the other person, to convey a "I understand you, I'm here, with you".
- An attachment based on mutual trust and respect is the best way to build positive relationships. They are bonds in which there is no need to control, to steal personal space or to require continuous and obsessive attention.
To conclude, as a curiosity, we tell you that the writer Joe Navarro, psychological consultant of the FBI, explains to us that when you love or appreciate a person, you always look for his gaze. In that mirror in which you reflect why you feel so valued and loved, you get joy. The eyes are the part of our body over which we have no control: they are the reflection of sincerity.
