Tess Christian is a 50-year-old British woman who does not give her age. That is because she has not smiled for 40 years to avoid getting wrinkles, as said in British newspaper DailyMail. Avoiding to smile in order to look younger most likely means giving into excessive youth culture.
Youth culture: she hasn’t smiled for 40 years to look younger
Tess Christian explains to DailyMail: “I haven’t laughed or smiled since I was a teenager. My dedication has paid off, I don’t have a single line on my face.”
The 50-year-old woman learnt from childhood to control her facial muscles to avoid smiling. Keeping tight lips was a struggle at first: “‘When I found something funny or I was tempted to laugh — which happened on a daily basis — I learned to control my facial muscles by holding them rigid”. She didn’t smile on her wedding day or the day her daughter was born. She preferred to internalize her joy to avoid lines.
Tess Christian has indeed very few lines on her face, but how much worth is spending 40 years of your life without smiling once?
The Daily Mail asked Londonian psychologist Amanda Hills about it. She explains that smiling is essential for mental health: she explains that smiling makes you release endorphins known as “happy hormones” which make you feel content. She adds that the more you smile, the happier you get because you are telling the neural pathways in your brain that you are happy, even if you are not. The brain is simply picking up muscle movement: thus, smiling more increases happiness, which is why some medical professionals recommend depression patients to practice smiling in the mirror.
Avoiding to smile can create unhappiness
Amanda Hills goes on saying that avoiding to smile creates the opposite effect. Indeed, a neutral face will not allow the brain to understand you are happy. Meanwhile, smiles tend to attract people and neutral expressions repels them, which can obviously affect your own happiness.
“Ladies, smile so your wrinkles can show in the right places!”
Madame de Maintenon recommended: “Ladies, smile so your wrinkles can show in the right places!”. 70-year-old Christyne Remnant followed advice. She smiles constantly and admits to the Daily Mail she avoided wrinkling her forehead to avoid lines. She confesses that people are always surprised when they learn about her age and adds that she never uses face cream of Botox.
Avoiding to smile or smile constantly to avoid wrinkles can look like extreme measures. What do you think of these methods?
Published by the Editorial Staff on