How to Read Your Face for Physical and Emotional Wellbeing

Our faces tell the entire story of our lives. And as our lives change, our faces and major features change with it revealing our past experiences, our current health state, and even glimpses into our futures.Facial reading has been recorded as far back as the 6th century in China, and in my belief, in practice much longer. Some of the earliest writings are from the time of Confucious when doctors and healers would use face reading as a health diagnostic tool. In Five Element Chinese philosophy, our faces hold a map of our entire body and can signal the wellbeing of our organs. The two sides of our faces offer insight as well.The right side of the face reveals our relationships with primary females and feminine energy in our lives. Relationships with our mothers, ourselves (if feminine energy is dominant), our sisters, our wives, and our daughters show up on the right side of our faces. These relationships often can show up quite literally, as our bodies serve up messages to us in mirrored form. For example, if the relationship with one’s wife is “heavy” or “a drag” at present, the right side of one’s face may weigh heavier and sag more than the other side.

The right side of our faces also reveals our relationship to our outer or public lives, meaning how we relate to our careers or our social life is indicated on our right side.

The left side of our faces acknowledges our relationships with primary males and masculine energy. These primary relationships include our fathers, ourselves (if masculine energy is dominant), our brothers, our husbands, and our sons. The left side also publishes our inner and truest essence. I most often see the differences between our two sides in our eyebrows. Many times the right eyebrow will be lifted with a high arch and the left eyebrow will be more straight across and often a bit lower than the right. This tells an entire story in itself! With a lifted and arched eyebrow on the right side, this tells us the person is outwardly pleasant, extroverted, cares for the feelings of others, and is inclined towards harmony and elegance. And with a straighter, lower brow on the left side, we learn this person is inwardly straightforward, is more inclined to work alone, and is very grounded or down to earth.While the sides of our faces tell a story, we also have all of our organs telling us what’s going on in different sections of our faces. There are many facial and reflexology maps published all over the internet and in books. I’ve studied many of them and this map is a combination of quite a few (intuitively it is the most accurate) proven by its many applications to my face readings and facial clients. Organs that often speak loudly on the face are the kidneys, which are located underneath the eyes. Each organ correlates with an emotion and the kidneys tend to be in relationship with the emotion of fear. If someone has dark circles, it can be an indication of excess fear and/or a weakness or stagnation in the kidneys.

We have so many different “skin messengers,” as I like to call them, that are so often revealing a signal that is more than skin deep, a call from an organ for detox, or an overload of a trapped emotion, or both.

Skin messengers come in all forms: rash, pimples, wrinkles, hyper or hypopigmentation, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, moles, fatty deposits, etc.

Emotions and their associated organs:

• Love/Joy – Heart
• Grief/Despair – Lungs
• Rage – Liver
• Worry – Stomach
• Overthinking/Over Responsibility – Gallbladder
• Anxiety – Pancreas
• Overthinking – Spleen
• Fear – Kidneys
• Confidence with Articulation – Thyroid (gland)

So once we have identified the different meanings of our facial features, interpreted the “skin messengers” popping up on certain areas of the face, looked up the meaning of the organ and the emotions associated with it — then how do we harmonize our whole being and heal ourselves? Thankfully, there are so many different ways.I feel one of the most healing modalities is massage; receiving massage allows one to shift into the parasympathetic state so our cells can heal and repair. Self massage is fabulous too even though it is active, so our cells are very much awake and spending energy. Movement is what keeps us healthy, and massage increases that movement in the blood and in the lymph fluid (our nutrients and our waste respectively). One can use tools, like gua sha stones or reflexology pens, or one can always use clean hands. Our touch is incredibly powerful as a healing agent. If there is discord between the two sides of our faces or paralysis on one side, known as Bell’s Palsy, it is beneficial to massage more times on the side that is sagging/lower to wake it up again. Microcurrent is a very effective and healing modality to stimulate the side that is experiencing paralysis.A few more ways to invite harmony and balance into our bodies, faces, and lives is emotional care. I call this emotional hygiene and it can be a daily practice so we are acknowledging and releasing emotions rather than accumulating these feelings within our bodies and our muscles’ memory. There are many ways to participate in emotional hygiene and it may include any or all of the following, as well as beyond this list: free writing (stream of consciousness writing and then burning the pages), walking on the beach where the water greets the sand with bare feet, nature walks, meditation, breathwork, journaling, speaking into voice memos, eating healing foods, calling trusted and generous listening friends, having sessions with a therapist, crying, yelling into pillows, exercise, stretching, singing, rocking in a hammock or a rocking chair, painting, working with a naturopath or nutritionist that aligns for you, and so many more.Julie Civiello Polier, founder of LINEA, is a celebrity facialist, holistic esthetician, Reiki Master, spiritual motivator, and intuitive guide. Her work draws from over a decade of training in movement and voice, massage, breathwork, spiritual psychology, and energy studies infused with her own intuition. Julie believes that we all hold the power to tune in and heal ourselves, and she guides her clients to tap into their unique gifts. Julie developed LINEA to educate and empower women to connect the inner and outer body, boosting vitality from within.