Facial Yoga
The face is the body part that has more muscle; there are dozens of muscles in it, which explains why the face is an area of great expression and movement. Despite this, the face is the part of the body that you exercise less and which often remains inactive; even sometimes it spends days without laughing, which brings a number of disadvantages for facial health and beauty. The lack of oxygenation, circulation and nutrient poor irrigation can turn your face limp, dull, tired and make it prone to premature wrinkles and conditions. Also stress, anxiety, not sleeping well, not drinking enough liquids and becomes unduly exposed to sun makes face unattractive.
Yoga has become fashionable in recent years for being an extremely useful activity to promote good condition, health and youth of the body. Among the exercises of yoga, we can find those intended to exercise the face, which are called facial yoga.
Yoga therapy benefits
Yoga therapy has the following advantages or benefits:
- Assists the face to oxygenate and nourish properly.
- Strengthens the tissues and muscles.
- Returns the elasticity and vitality to the tissues and helps to diminish expression marks and to avoid them.
- It restores skin texture, smoothness and youth to face.
- It helps that some skin conditions subside.
- It keeps you young and healthy.
- The eyes are brighter because of the good blood supply.
How to learn facial Yoga?
You can learn a facial yoga with an instructor, or through books, DVD or even on the internet as there are pages with examples of some facial yoga exercises. Yoga exercises for face combine a series of manipulations and gestures with proper breathing techniques and meditation. Although it is always recommended the instruction of a professional, we've compiled some exercises with simple instructions for you to get you started practicing it at home.
Before starting we recommend:
- Having a clean and well moisturized face with some cream and honey, aloe, apple, etc., which help to turn it more amenable to manipulation.
- Do not forget to drink enough water throughout the day, so that your face has the necessary moisture to keep in good condition. Two liters of water a day is enough.
Facial yoga postures to practice at home
Warming: In a comfortable position, either sitting or standing up and with your neck down, feel the stretch in your neck and throat pate. Make the movement smoothly and enjoy. Then circle to one side and the other, while you slowly, breathe deeply and slowly.
Yoga for the eyes: close your eyes and relax, look and feel your eyelids relaxed. Breathe easily and open them slowly. Without moving your head, look to the left as far as possible, and then to the right side, gently, you should not feel hurt. Repeat 3 or 4 times, then do up and down another 4 times. Now, turn your eyes to the left and then to the right. To brighten eyes, open them as if you were surprised but avoid stressing the forehead. Keep the look of surprise a few seconds and then relax.
Yoga for eyelids: head and back straight, look up without moving your face. While looking up, close your eyelids and open them slowly a couple of times.
Yoga for the forehead: Tilt your head back in a comfortable position. Tap your forehead with your finger a few seconds. Then, lift the eyebrows and lower them slowly, feeling how your forehead stretches.
Yoga for lips, jaw and cheeks: Inflate your cheeks with air and pass from one side to another smoothly, play slide it over your upper and lower lips. Then, put your finger up your cheeks and make gentle pressure on them while trying to inflate again. After about 3 minutes, pronounce the letter "O" very gently pulling your cheek muscles, hold a few seconds and then slowly opening the lips trying to pronounce the letter "A". Open and close slowly, you do the exercise without a sound, if you're in the job.
Yoga for the mouth: slowly throw the corners of the mouth to one side as if you'd laugh on one side only. Then the other. Do it slowly a few times.
Yoga for Neck: Recharge your head back and staring at the ceiling, relax neck and arms. Now, while swallowing saliva in your mouth, pressure the tip of the tongue. Now, turn the neck to one side and repeat. Then the other side. Then, open and close the jaw slowly as you can.
Yoga to the side of the eyes: Put your middle fingers gently on the skin of lateral side of your eyes. Then squeeze your eyes a little bit feeling that this skin is stretched, and doing light tension with the ring finger. Repeat three or four times. Avoid heavy pressure as this skin is delicate.
These exercises can be practiced in the morning or at night, and even at work if you're stressed. If you want to increase the benefits of facial yoga, you should consume antioxidant-rich foods so that your blood is of quality. Carrots, strawberries, blueberries, garlic, onion, celery and tomato are an elixir for the skin, as well as fish and vegetables rich in good oil, nutrients for optimal cellular regeneration.