Facial Yoga – an alterative to injecting your face with poison!

I'm a bit frightened of the idea of a full facelift because, when you look in the mirror, you want to look like yourself.

Carol Vorderman

Did you know there are fifty-five muscles in your face? I certainly didn’t – wow! Precious little wonder then that as we get older, our faces lose their elasticity and they start to… well… droop! Now I know there are surgical/medical interventions that can “help” but do you really want to end up like once very beautiful Meg Ryan or Courteney Cox, not for me thanks! You could also consider injecting your face with poison, did you know one in six people who have Botox injected into their face suffer complications such as bruising, headache, nausea and “frozen” features – again, no thanks!

However, there is a non-medical solution that is gathering momentum, hell, there was even a class at my local gym recently teaching people – Facial Yoga – Yes, it really is a thing! Face yoga strengthens the 55 muscles of your face and is a great alternative to surgery and Botox. The yoga techniques are designed to stimulate collagen and elastin production in the middle layer of the skin, giving you smoother, tighter-looking skin and a more radiant complexion. If you practice face yoga regularly, it can smooth your wrinkles, lift eyes, reduce puffiness, tone cheeks, firm jawlines and create a healthy glow. Doing the following six face yoga exercises once or twice a day, you will see results faster than you think – I know I did!

Fish Face

This face yoga exercise smooths the nasolabial fold lines and lifts the eyes and cheeks.

Place both palms on your cheeks.
Push your hands up and down, lifting the sides of your face.
Open your mouth and make an “O” shape. Drop your jaw to make your face as long as possible.
Hold this pose for about 30 seconds. Repeat two more times.

Forehead Lift

This face yoga exercise tightens your forehead and horizontal forehead lines.

Just place your hands on the outer edges of your forehead and apply pressure to smooth out the skin (imagine you are sweeping away your forehead wrinkles).
Now start to raise and lower your eyebrows. Don’t be afraid to apply firm pressure. You want to feel some resistance from the skin while you perform this exercise.

The Giraffe

This face yoga exercise helps reduce double-chin and saggy, loose skin on the neck.

Looking straight ahead, place the fingertips at the bottom of your neck and lightly stroke the skin downwards with the head tilted back.
Bring the head back down to the chest and repeat twice more.
Finally, jut the lower lip out as far as possible to pull the corners of the mouth down and place fingertips on the collarbone with the chin pointed upwards.

Show your tongue

This yoga exercise reduces puffy eyes and a swollen face.

Just place your hands on your temples and apply pressure to smooth out the skin.
Open your mouth as wide as possible and stick your tongue out as far as you can and hold this pose for about 60 seconds.

Puppet Face

This face yoga exercise relieves plump cheeks, fades away nasal labial folds.

Smile wide displaying your teeth.
Gently press your fingertips on the crease between your nose and lips. Then lift your muscles up while pressing your fingertips down to apply little resistance. Repeat it at least 20 times.

Mouthwash Move

This face yoga exercise helps to correct nasal labial folds and chubby cheeks.

Fill up one of your cheeks with air and transfer the air from one cheek to another as you would do with mouthwash.
Continue it for 1 minute and relax. Repeat it 5 to 10 times at a stretch for best results.

To enhance the effects of facial yoga, try a Collagen Supplement. Collagen supplements are usually in the form of a drink and you can find them at most reputable health-food shops. There’s a really good article on a UK based website, I’ll summarise it on a future post!

What’s on this week?