Gurning

Gurning [face-pulling] contests were once part of every fairground programme.

And here's where I have a confession to make.

No. Not that I regularly won these contests, but that being an only child with a stern father, I was scared of the bogeymen in the dark ... and I kept them at bay by ... gurning at them.

Here's the kicker. I still gurn, having discovered something fundamental about it.

For me anyway, it's instant therapy. Give me two minutes alone and I can absorb any shock, any disappointment, any insult or embarrassment and come back smiling.

I know why it works too - because the facial muscles are rooted so deep in the Old Brain they operate without thought like a broom to clear the trash out of the frontal lobes.

Try it and see for yourself with or without a mirror. The faster you pull your faces the sooner the therapy works - for me.

The idea : a graduate student might see this and do some research into "gurning as therapy" and a web-page might be started.