Face

I'm liking the interpretation room of face reading between species.  Most people are familiar with cats & their moods.  Boomer has such an expressive face & doesn't mind his photo taken.  

So what is his mood?

A cat posed like this looks tired, lazy even.  His face sort-of reflects it too.  A picture can't show the subtle tail flick & deep sigh.  Is he bored?  restless?  tired?  Is he ready to pull his specialty cat hypnotism to make anyone looking at him think, "you are getting sleepy, vvverrrryyyy sssleeeeepyyyyy..."

Or is he saying, "What? Just bug off, I'm thinking & planning, what do you want?"  Tired & reflective kinda look the same on people too.  We identify moods in our house like they are stage characters.  Tired usually appears with Hungry & Thirsty.  Mad is often arm & arm with Frustrated and Sad.  Happy is great friends with Silly and Satisfied.  Thinking this way has really helped to break down what moods are.  Sometimes we discuss moods by breaking down the sequence, "backtracking" or "back-chaining" as some literature & professionals call it.  When problem solving we often have to look backwards & sleuth out the sequence of events that got us in trouble.  Thats not easy to do if you are not easily aware of your thoughts & emotions.  

There are people in the world that can read your emotions faster than anyone can interpret them.  Chances are those are the same people that frustrate the last very last nerve out of you.  The trick is understanding WHY am I so ticked off.  If people (adults)  are not responsible for their own emotions, its not fair to expect others (children) to be responsible for riling them either.  Teaching responsibility includes being responsible for our own feelings and actions.

Read my face

Most people would say this cat, Boomer is mad about something.  Doesn't matter what really, but it looks like he's going to say, "If you don't stop RIGHT NOW, I will bite you!"

We learn to read faces with experience.  Temple Grandin writes that Ausperger people typically focus on the mouth, not the eyes when reading faces.  It has to do with paying attention so hard to what is being said because of listening challenges, that they miss other cues.  Regular people know to look at the eyes of a face first & factor in what the rest of the face says.  This is teachable, but if you don't understand the features of each emotion, its extra tough.

So, look again, see Boomer's pretty smile & nice teeth, its kinda funny looking isn't it, makes me smile, such an interesting face.  See how his eyes crinkle, its a big smile.  See his ears tip like he's going to do something fun?  OWWW!!! I just got bit.  How did that happen?