Facial blushing is a human reflex. It is hard to control and can occur at the most inopportune moment. Our friends in the animal kingdom do not have this problem. They do not blush and if they did they would not care one bit. But being sophisticated humans facial blushing has become the source of teasing, and embarrassment. This is for no good reason. It can get to be such a problem that you do not want to go out and meet people for fear of blushing in public. You know that at some point you will start getting hot and that your face will go pink or even red with blushing.
Quite why blushing has become such a taboo thing I do not know. Some people see it as a sign of weakness. I prefer to say it is a sign of openness. Others would say it is immaturity but again I would say that only people that do not consider others would laugh at someone blushing. How mature is that? People who blush too easily are just people who blush easily. Sometimes because they are easily shocked or surprised, other times simply because of the type of complexion they have. They also may have a medical problem that you know nothing about that causes facial blushing or hot flushes.
As someone who blushes far to easily for my liking here are my 3 reasons why I hate it so much:-
1. My facial blushing means I know I am going to start sweating
My body has a set pattern that links blushing to sweating. I can feel it coming on and I know that if my face goes red then I am going to have excess sweating. As soon as I feel the physical sensation of blushing I know I have to take care to stop my sweating which can double my problem. Over the years I have learnt to plan and prepare for this. I often can predict situations when I will blush and sweat. This planning alone can reduce its impact on me. I can even warn people that they are going to make me blush and they will almost apologise for being the cause. This makes me feel a whole lot better.
2. I'm going to be embarrassed
When I blush in the company of strangers I know I am going to feel embarrassed. It can be in a meeting where I disagree with the conclusion. My blushing sends out the wrong signals about how I am feeling to others in the meeting. I do a lot of public speaking and performing and have learnt to talk about my blushing and sweating up front with my audience to put them at their ease. I do not want them to be distracted by my blushing and sweating and miss what I am saying. This takes a bit of courage but I recommend this to people who do presentations and performances.
3. There is almost nothing I can do about it
This is the most infuriating thing about blushing. I know its going to happen and I can't stop it. I can sense the heat in my body rising and can almost feel the colour filling up in my face. Having said that I have leant a whole range of methods to reduce it by careful planning. I also give myself extra time if I am going to be in a high stress situation. Dealing with the sweat problem part of it using simple natural methods has reduced the problem by half because I now only have to deal with the blushing part of the problem.
