Face Yoga – look younger and help to heal?
Face Yoga – you may have heard of it, seen it advertised, maybe even tried it, but is it worth the hype? As someone who has shied away from any form of face injection or filler for her whole life, I was delighted when face yoga started to appear on my social feeds. I knew in my heart that, a bit like with healing, there had to be a way the body could do it—instead of us always rushing to Big Pharma in the hope that popping a pill might sort out our woe.
Face yoga is there to make us look younger, so what’s it got to do with healing and helping us on a recovery journey?
Let’s go back to the nervous system, and how it kindly steps in to push us into the ‘flight or fright’ versus ‘rest and digest’ mindset that then causes the body to behave accordingly. I am dramatically oversimplifying here, but the place we who are sick want our bodies to be, is sitting somewhere in the chilled-out, meditation zone, sipping a kombucha, feet in the sand, breeze in our hair location of our subconsious. So if we can get there through different processes or self-care tools, it’s my belief these actions can help create the fertile mind and body space for healing to start and flourish—if we give it half a chance.
Face Yoga over meditation?
No, meditation or mindfulness are great methods to slow and calm the active overthinking, over-anxious mind, and I believe a crucial part of the recovery package most patients would benefit from. However, not everyone takes to meditation, and for those who don’t, finding self-care tools that help to relax them could offer a window into the tropical chill-out paradise they are hoping they will reach.
What is Face Yoga?
Face yoga, also known as facial exercise or facial yoga, is a natural and non-invasive method for improving the appearance and health of the facial muscles and skin. It involves a series of facial movements and massage techniques that stimulate blood flow, promote relaxation, and help to lift and tone the muscles of the face and neck. There are various benefits to face yoga and it’s a real alternative to more invasive cosmetic procedures.
One of the main benefits of face yoga is that it can help to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. As we age, the muscles in our face can become weak and lose tone, leading to sagging skin and the development of wrinkles. Face yoga helps to strengthen and tone these muscles, resulting in firmer, smoother, and more youthful-looking skin.
Another benefit of face yoga is that it can stimulate circulation to the face and neck, which can help to improve the overall health and appearance of the skin. Improved circulation means that the skin cells are receiving more oxygen and nutrients, which can help to improve skin tone and texture.
Face yoga can also help to promote relaxation and reduce stress, which can have a positive impact on the appearance of the skin, as well as support the parasympathetic nervous system. Stress can cause the skin to break out and can also lead to the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. By promoting relaxation, face yoga can help to reduce the appearance of these.
In addition to these benefits, face yoga is a natural and non-invasive method for improving the appearance of the face and neck. Unlike cosmetic procedures, it does not involve any chemicals or surgery, making it a safer and more natural alternative. It is also a convenient and affordable option, as it can be done in the comfort of your own home and does not require any special equipment. Although there are now tools you can buy to support your face yoga journey—like gua sha and quartz rollers.
Face Yoga is designed to soften and relax your facial muscles to help alleviate tension, stress, and worry. Face Yoga works on all three layers of the skin, which increases blood circulation. This in turn nourishes and brings more oxygen to the upper layer of skin, leaving you with a glowing and healthy complexion. Massage techniques help to stimulate the production of collagen and elastin, and to improve lymphatic drainage. By encouraging lymphatic drainage, we support the removal of toxins and excess fluid from the face and neck.
As practisers of face yoga learn to strengthen or relax certain muscles, they improve their posture, experience fewer headaches, and reduced teeth grinding. Others have said they find it easier to relax and fall asleep at night. Some benefits may include
- control face muscles
- promote proper nostril breathing
- firm the neckline
- reprogram muscle memory
- improve symptoms of temporomandibular joint (TMJ)
- make your face more symmetrical
- reduce the appearance of dark under-eye circles
- improve confidence
- tone face muscles
- correct sagging
- generate positive emotions
- make your face less rounded
Why is Face Yoga relaxing?
For some, face yoga may remind them of the relaxing experiences of facials. For those of you who haven’t experienced one, there is something very calming about light touches, massage and acupressure techniques applied on the face. Anyone familiar with tapping will know, there are tapping pressure points on the face and neck area which are intrinsic to that process. Whether or not you believe as I do, that EFT can help with healing through reducing the emotional charge of situations, circumstances, memories or phobias—there is something about tapping which can distract from thoughts in the head—relaxing the mind as well as the body.
Could Face Yoga support healing?
Well, for me the healing process can only really start or be facilitated in a body that is receptive to it—healing that is. In the parasympathetic state—rest and digest—we are more open to positive thoughts and what we feel in our body can help us to believe whatever we might be doing, may work in some way. To get us into that mindset we may need to employ various different methods to realise this. As previously mentioned, not everyone may engage with the idea of meditation, so as an alternative way of calming the body and relaxing the mind—face yoga may provide an answer.
Alongside this, the idea of looking younger, or at least softening the effects of aging makes me feel happier, and I doubt I’m alone in this. Combine that with the acupressure, massage, and lymphatic drainage benefits and what’s not to make you feel better about maybe only ten minutes a day of self-care?
And for me?
My goal is to learn and certify in Face Yoga so that I can then teach it to others who are on a patient’s journey pre and post-transplant. For those of us with so much out of our control, often unable to do more physical forms of exercise, finding small ways to lift our mood and feel better can have a huge effect on our mental health. When we are taking medication with its own side effects and facing symptoms of our health condition, small things that we can be in control of can be a huge boost.
My mother over 60 years ago, used to visit a lady in London who taught her exercises and was likely one of the early proponents of face yoga and massage before it went mainstream. Although she is aging, because she takes collagen and still employs some of these techniques, the process she is undergoing is one which is being kind to her in many ways. I’m more akin to my father in looks, but I remain cautiously optimistic that with face yoga as one of the self-care tools in my toolbox, I might be as fortunate too.
Where can I learn Face Yoga?
Face Yoga teachers have popped up everywhere since the lock down, but when choosing a teacher it is really worth checking credentials as although it’s easy enough to find ‘teach yourself’ courses online only with an experienced teacher.
What should I look for when booking a Face Yoga course?
Before booking always check reviews online, past customers’ results and the course contents. Whether they are certified in any way, what is the actual syllabus—depth of learning, length of training, commitment needed and whether there will be extra costs with tools or subscriptions afterwards. Yoga like many disciplines of study, isn’t just, ‘take a course’ and be ‘trained’. There is much to be learned and most courses will allow you to access the foundations, but if you want to build a house, after that it will be up to you to find the bricks/learning to build your future in this incredible discipline.