Look at your two hands. Or your two feet. Or the two sides of your face.
Are they the same size and shape?
Does that have anything to do with our idea of beauty?
It sure does.
Most people consider a symmetrical face to be beautiful. In fact, in a study, many ages of people were shown many different faces to discover attractiveness. The result was that even babies found symmetrical faces more attractive. Part of the conclusion was that:
Beauty is not just a simple social construct—attractiveness appears to be ingrained in our biology.
Being more or less attractive has important social consequences and people do generally agree on who is and who is not attractive.
– Facial Attractiveness: evolutionary based research
If attractive faces are symmetrical, then
Why aren’t we symmetrical?
The asymmetry in our body and our face may have several causes.
First of all, while most of us have two arms and two legs on opposite sides of our bodies, our internal organs are largely asymmetrical.
In addition, an injury can affect one body part and not the corresponding one on the other side of our body.
Our life experiences are stored in our bodies, forming our character.
Finally, most of us prefer to do things with one hand or one side of the body. All of these can lead to asymmetry of the face or body.
Observe your body
Put your hands out in front of you. Oh, put down your phone first.
Do you notice that one hand tends to stay more closed than the other?
Is that your dominant hand?
Now notice if the eye on your dominant side is more contracted, or closed, than the other eye.
Look at your family and friends – really look in their faces – and notice where the contraction is.
A consequence of having one side more contracted is a poor equilibrium as well as back and shoulder pain.
In addition, we are not considered as attractive when we are not equal from side to side.
Can we change our asymmetry?
Is there anything we can do about it?
Yes.
Researcher Paula Garbourg, author of “The Secret of the Ring Muscles,” shows us how we can regain beauty through symmetry.
She has discovered that you can counteract asymmetry by working just one set of muscles on the contracted side. Because muscles tend to work in sympathy, one contracted muscle can cause others in that chain to contract. On the other hand, by exercising one set of muscles on that side, the others in the chain will be affected, and will release.
Many people have found relief from shoulder and arm pain by doing the following simple exercise. In addition, people have regained some equilibrium because of more symmetry in their bodies from doing this exercise. They have felt their whole body straighten more.
One simple exercise?
It is easy to do and you don’t necessarily need a dedicated time to do it. You can do this simple exercise while doing certain other things.
For example, I used to do this exercise while walking my dog. The longer I walked doing this simple practice, the more I felt my lower back release and there was more of an ease in walking. You can do this while doing any other activity in which you don’t need both hands. In other words, don’t do this while driving.
How to do the simple exercise for beauty
Spread the four fingers of your dominant hand as widely as you can.
Don’t worry about your thumb, it will do what it needs to without your conscious direction.
Hold your fingers spread apart widely for one to two minutes to start. If it hurts a little, it is a sign that you need this exercise.
Continue holding as long as you can.
In five to ten minutes of holding your fingers apart widely, you may feel your body straighten. The dominant hand lets go its contraction with this exercise, then the release radiates to the whole dominant side of your body.
As you hold the fingers apart even longer, your whole body will begin to straighten.
When you feel the action is complete, let your fingers go to their natural place.
Notice if you hand is a lot less contracted than before the exercise. Notice if the whole dominant side of your body is released. Notice if your whole body feels more equal from side to side, straighter in gravity.
Now notice how beautiful you are!
Please comment below on the results of this simple exercise. What did you notice in that side of your body? What did not notice throughout your body?
