Who here doesn’t want their face to look youthful, replenished and glowing? Face yoga is a relatively new holistic approach to youthful skin. Rather than turning to expensive invasive treatments, let’s look into Face Yoga’s anti-aging benefits that cost nothing!
Face yoga combines the principles of acupuncture, massage and exercise to give your face that beautiful youthful glow. It:
- helps to decrease puffiness
- boosts your skin’s oxygenation and circulation
- increases collagen and elastin
- can reduce and remove face and neck wrinkles
- helps to generate better facial response to stress
- increases lymphatic drainage
- helps you use your facial expressions in a different way (frown and worry less, and smile more)
Popularity of Face Yoga
The questionnaire I gave to 30 yoga teachers showed that some of them haven’t even heard of it. 18 said that they included face yoga in their classes, 5 said no, and 7 didn’t know what it was. And since face yoga is not too popular, the research studying its effectiveness is not that big either.
The Benefits of Face Yoga
Face yoga is based on the principles of acupressure, massage and exercise. The parts of the face that store tension (such as the jaw and the forehead) get relaxed and those parts prone to sagging (cheeks and eye area) receive needed lifting.
Studies
One study had a group of middle-aged women do face yoga everyday for 30 minutes over the course of 8 weeks. The researchers took photos of them before and after to test the results. The results showed that their upper cheeks looked more full. Researchers also had people rate how old these women looked. The raters estimated that they looked 2 years younger on average. And another study showed that face exercises and face acupuncture “have the potential to improve the skin laxity, wrinkle length, muscle thickness, and pigmentary changes associated with aging.”
New Uses for Our Faces
Another thing about face yoga is that it gives us space to use our face in a new way! After making the same old facial expressions throughout our lives, these start leaving their marks on us. And it gets harder to change these expressions with years, because in a way, we’ve gotten addicted to them. They have become a part of our conditioning. Have you ever found yourself frowning even though there was nothing to frown about? (I know I have.) Face yoga helps with this. It opens your face and lets you shine your beauty into the world, no matter your past.
(To read more about how our faces become the canvas of our thoughts, read our embodiment article. In there we also discuss how changing the state of your body (face included), can change the state of your mind and, ultimately, your life. Try out the exercises we offer there too.)
And of course, everything takes time. But, for a more powerful and faster effect, we suggest combining the exercises we present here with:
- pranayama (breathing exercises) for youthful and healthy skin
- specific yoga, mudras and meditation techniques that reduce ageing which we covered here
- and on top of that, add yoga asanas for a holistic and magnetic personality
Face Yoga
The following exercises were taken and adapted from Daniel Collins, Face Yoga Expert, one of the world’s Face Yoga leading experts who has been sharing her knowledge with the world for the past 17 years.
Do each of the following exercises for as long as you can, possibly, a minute each. At first, your sessions will be longer, but as your muscles get into shape, shorter 10-15 minutes sessions will be enough. And, also you don’t have to do all the exercises, just pick the ones that feel good for you. Do it whenever you need a quick refreshener. Perhaps you’ve been working for too long? Take a few minutes’ break, and just do a few of these and see how you will feel after.
Preparation for Face Yoga
Take off any jewellry you might have and keep the hair off the face. Use a mirror to do these exercises. Your face and hands should be clean. You can apply a bit of your favorite cream. It shouldn’t be too oily or too thick.
Adjust your position. Stretch the spine and roll the shoulders a few times to ease off any tensions. Do a couple of neck half-rolls, a couple to each side to bring yourself into the yoga state of mind.
Bring awareness to your face. Notice any tension you may be holding in the face and try to soften it. Soften the forehead, around the eyes, cheeks you may be holding. As you do this, take a few easy breaths through the nose, noticing the abdomen rise. And then breathe out through the nose, noticing the abdomen fall. Keep doing this throughout the practice.
As you do the following exercises, make sure that your neck and shoulders are relaxed. Also, keep your movements gentle and not too forceful. Facial skin is sensitive so don’t drag it.
Face Yoga Warmup
1.Place the fingertips to your forehead, starting from the temples on each side. Start tapping the skin gently with your fingertips to wake up and warm up the face and bring some energy to it. Move slowly down towards the cheeks, under the eyes, the nose, and tapping your chin and neck. As you do the neck, bring the head back slightly.
2. Next, rub your hands together to create heat and more energy. And then cup them over your face for a few seconds. Keep breathing consciously.
The Forehead
1. Make fists with your hands and place the knuckles on the center of the forehead. They should be touching each other. Then slide the hands down towards the temples. Next, bring them back up and repeat.
Benefits:
- This massage helps release the tension from the muscle of the forehead.
- We boost the circulation, which helps the forehead look glowing.
- By relaxing this muscle, it is more likely to stay relaxed through the rest of the day.
- You will be less likely to raise or pull the eyebrows up too much, which is what causes forehead lines
2. Make a hook with your index finger. Place the knuckle on the middle of the eyebrows. Glide it up several times to even out the center of the forehead.
Benefits:
- Boosts the circulation. It brings fresh blood, nutrients and oxygen to the skin surface.
- By relaxing the muscle between the eyebrows, we are softening and preventing those stress-related facial expressions.
- Relaxing this area.
3. Bring your index fingers and thumbs together and start pinching the area around the eyebrows. Start at the inner corners and move to the end of eyebrows. If you notice your eyebrows go up as you do this, bring them down and soften them.
4. Then, place the tops of index fingers on the inner corner of the eyebrows and sweep till the outer corners. Applying soft pressure, elevate and lift the skin of the eyebrows. Do not drag it.
P5. lace the top of index fingers and the middle fingers on each temple. Press gently, and close your eyes. If you feel comfortable, you can start making circles in one direction and in the other.
Benefits:
- Releasing tension that often gets stored in temple area, sometimes even causing headaches.
The Eyes
1.Use your index fingers to tap lightly around the eye area.
Benefits:
- It wakes up the skin.
- Helps with lymphatic drainage and circulation.
- Helps with puffiness, dark circles and eye bags.
2. Place the index fingers to the space between the inner corner of the eyes and the nose. Hold it there for a few seconds as you breathe deeply and slowly. This is an acupressure point for reducing stress. Then starting from that point, gently and lightly, slide the index fingers under the eyes all the way to the temples. And keep repeating this movement. As this skin area is very sensitive, do not drag the skin.
Cheeks
1. Puff the cheeks so that they are full of air. Then hold. Press the space above the lips with the top of your fingers to smooth out any lines there. Then using the other hand start tapping the respective cheek. Do not tap too strongly so the air goes out. If you have lines around the area between the nose and lips, tap there as well. And if you find your jaw gets tense often, tap more around the jaw area. Do this for 30 seconds or a minute and then change sides.
2. Make an O shape with the mouth and then change to a big smile. Keep changing between these two.
3. Draw your lips into a smile. Then, place the tops of index and middle fingers in the corners of the mouth, where those smiling dips usually pop up. Apply soft and gentle pressure and pull backwards and stretch that part.
Benefits:
- Helps firm and lift the muscles under the skin, to reduce sagging of this part of the face.
- Helps let go of tension you might be holding there.
The Jaw
1.Take two fingers and thumb, place them on the lower chin, and start pinching up along the jawline up to the ears. And then start over.
2. Place the index finger in that little whole behind the ear and hold. Keep breathing as you do it.
Benefits:
- Releases the tension you’ve accumulated and stops from building up new tension throughout the day.
3. Pucker the lips and hold for 10 seconds. And start again.
Benefits:
- Strengthens the muscles around the jaw.
4. Open the palms and connect the thumbs. Bring the thumbs touching, place them under the chin and start sweeping with your palms towards the ears. Again, no dragging. Apply soft pressure as you do this.
5. Bring the tops of the index and middle fingers to the jaw. To check that your fingers are on the jaw, open and close it a few times to feel the movement. Press with the fingers. Then, start circling with the fingers a few times in each direction.
Benefits:
- Great for TMJ and jaw tension and tightness.
6. Turn your head to one side. Lift the head and the chin slightly. Place the lips together. Then bring the tongue up and down towards the roof of the mouth once per second. Do this 20 times on each side.
The Neck
1. Make fish lips and then lift the chin to the sky and start kissing the sky (not kidding). Make noise as you do that kissing because the effect is greater. As you do this, notice how the neck feels.
Benefits:
- Stretches your and lengthens the neck muscles.
2. Bring your fingers to the top of the neck and slide them down to the collarbone. Then, keep tapping along the collarbones. Lastly, stroke them nicely and softly. You can stroke away from each other and also downwards, towards your chest.
Benefits:
- Lymphatic drainage.
3. Place the hands on the back of the neck and massage this region any way it feels good.
Skull Massage
Place the thumbs in the holes behind the ears and start massaging the back of the skull with the other fingers. You can bend the head down to let it all out. Lastly, place all the fingers on the crown of the head and massage softly there too.
Benefits:
- Self massage activates the Vagus nerve, which is in charge of our well-being.
- Calms the mind and helps clear your thoughts.
Finishing
Keep your face soft, rub the palms gently and place them over your face, without touching the face. Keeping your eyes closed, and hover over your face. Lastly, just hold the palms over the face, noticing any subtle changes from this practice.
Conclusion
As mentioned, the scientific research on face yoga is still fresh. But since there are no side effects, it can’t hurt to try. Since the fountain of youth hasn’t been invented yet, let’s work with what we can. Perhaps we don’t need Botox, laser or surgical interventions just yet. Turning to more holistic approaches to looking youthful might be the solution.
Tatjana Glogovac, Senior Contributor At L’Aquila Active
Learn more about Tatjana by reading her bio below.
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