Get the Yoga Glow With This Facial Yoga Flow
Yoga gets you in tune with your body and helps you understand how each part functions for your overall health.
It can also help us feel where we store tension, find hidden pockets of stress and release them to improve our mood, complexion, and well being. Perhaps you’ve noticed your jaw is often tense or maybe you furrow your brow when you’re concentrating. Today we are going to introduce you to stretches you can do with your face!
So Long, Botox! Hello, Natural Facelift!
What do actors, wind instrument musicians, and yogis have in common? Great skin from healthy blood flow and movement of the facial muscles. You’ll love this facial yoga for clear skin and cheeks and you’ll start to feel the lift in just a few days just like you do when you lift weights at the gym. People are going gaga for facial yoga as the ultimate longevity hack.
Let’s Laugh & Stretch
This facial yoga flow can get you smiling for ‘National Let’s Laugh’ day on March 19th. While this may feel foreign to you, there are actually a lot of benefits to facial stretches including boosting collagen production for that healthy yoga glow as well as improving eyesight. We often forget the muscles we work to tone in our body are also in our face so here’s to you having a strong face! Let’s increase that blood flow and release that tension with this fun Facial Yoga.
Now you’re probably getting excited wondering do yoga facial exercises work and why haven’t I heard of them sooner? Well, a plastic surgeon can’t charge much for something you can do for free at home right? Here is your beginner’s guide on how to do yoga facial exercises. If you’re wondering does facial yoga work for wrinkles, well it is going to help reduce sagging and reduce lines over time, give you firm cheeks, and more plump limps.
A Facial Yoga Flow
It may help to be able to see your face as you do this. So grab your favorite mirror and let’s go!
Lip Circles
Begin by pushing your lips out as if you were going to give a kiss and then move your lips in ten clockwise circles. Make sure you breathe deeply through your nose as you do this to help build muscle faster. Then reverse the direction making ten counterclockwise circles.
Horse Breath
Gently hold your lips together and take a deep inhale through your nose and then blow through your lips making them flutter like a horse. Feel the vibration resonate through your face and relax the muscles like a massage ten times.
Nose Exercise
Isolate the muscles just to the sides of your nostrils and use them to flare your nostrils twenty times. This may seem hard at first because these muscles are rarely used.
Massage
Rub your palms together quickly creating heat and then massage your jaw muscle. Then take the bottom of your palms and slide them from the top of your jaw to the bottom flicking them away from your chin and feel free to make a sound as you release tension. Do this five times.
Cheek Extension
Blow your cheeks out and make your eyes wide five times in a row holding for five seconds each time. Take deep breaths in between to make sure you get enough air. This strengthens the muscles around your eyes and helps firm the cheeks.
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Eye Muscle Articulation
As if you’re narrowing your eyes at someone, isolate the bottom eyelids and raise them twenty times while you breathe. This is one of those muscles that may be hard to maneuver at first.
Cheek Exercise
Smile showing your teeth and press two fingers into your cheeks pulling down so your cheek muscles have some resistance. Do this ten times holding for five seconds.
Lip Articulation
Isolate the upper lip and curl it up ten times. Isolate the muscles just above the upper lip and lift your upper lip ten times. Isolate the lower lip and curl it down ten times. Isolate the chin muscle and pull your lower lip down ten times.
Eyeball Exercise
Look up and then down five times. Look left and then right five times. Look up diagonally to the right and down diagonally to the left five times. Finally, look up diagonally to the left and down to the right five times. Keep breathing as you do these vision improving exercises.
Neck Exercise
Lift your chin and cover your bottom lip over your bottom teeth ten times.
Jaw Shake
Bend your arms and interlace your fingers so your hands are near your mouth and then vigorously shake your hands forward and backward while keeping your jaw loose. This will make the jaw move back and forth and you can make a sound to help release jaw tension.
Eye Muscle Heat Relaxer
Rub your hands together quickly to create heat and then place them over your eyes to help relax your eye muscles and reduce eye strain three times holding for seven seconds each.
Closing
There are many muscles in the face that become dormant as we age and the muscles when not used can lose mass. Just as you work out your biceps and calves, working out your face will lead to a more firm face only if you’re consistent.
So find time to add this to your day as a part of your daily routine and you’ll see that after a month, you really can notice a difference. Maybe do it after brushing your teeth in the mirror or watching your favorite show. It’s best not to do while driving because it pulls your focus from safety and keeping your mind on the road.
You may also want to incorporate some inversions like downward-facing dog, headstand, or standing forward fold to help improve circulation to your head and deliver nutrients to help hair growth and collagen production. Finally, be sure to drink lots of water and eat fruits and vegetables that will give you the vitamins and minerals you need to be radiant and healthy.
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