Autism Society of Larimer County

How to Lift Your Mood? Try Smiling By John Cloud Friday, Jan. 16, 2009 My personal trainer sometimes gives me an odd piece of advice during workouts: "Relax your face." For a long time, I found this advice confusing. Isn't physical exertion supposed to be expressed in grimaces? I thought of the face as a pressure-relief valve that helps emit the pain the body is experiencing. But the trainer suggested I think about it the other way around — that controlling the face can help control the mind. More Related * Skip the Botox. Try Facial Yoga * Bashful is in the Eye Of The Beholder * Facing Realities I was skeptical until I read a paper in the January issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Psychological Association. That paper led me to other papers, and it turns out the trainer is right: The face isn't a pressure-relief valve. It is more like a thermostat. When you turn down the setting, the machinery inside has to do less work. For the whole article: http://www.time. com/time/ health/article/ 0,8599,1871687, 00.htm