Day 18

RBF.

Resting Bitch Face.

I have one of those.

I don’t look friendly when my face is relaxed.

So I taught myself to smile.

All the time.

It kind of sucked because it meant I would smile and laugh when what I really wanted was to pout and cry.

A therapist gave me the homework one time to smile only when I wanted to.

That was like 8 years ago. I’m still working on it.

It’s so ingrained, especially for the feminine:

One should appear pleasant and engaged at all time.

Even with dithering idiots.

I wasted a lot of time appearing pleasant and engaged with people who didn’t deserve it.

I don’t do that anymore.

I listen to my face.

If my face wants to frown, I let it happen.

This requires the other person to respond to my facial expression, whereas a pleasant smile doesn’t require a response.

Then we get to have an actual conversation instead of me being the dithering idiot trying to keep things pleasant.

It’s better this way.

Hooray! Relax your face. Then keep doing it. It’s harder than it sounds!

Sweet! Let’s play with a gentle yin practice!

Glorious! Let’s journal and eliminate limited thinking.

 Keep in touch, y’all!