Who wants to age? While we all know and understand that our time here on Earth is transient, we all fear the ravages of time. For our once-youthful face to show its age and sometimes look prematurely old is a painful pill to swallow. And even the best of creams, treatments, and sunblocks cannot quite keep Father Time at bay, and they all also come with their own set of side effects as well. To keep your face youthful, longer, try some face yoga instead.
Why Face Yoga?
As with any exercise, yoga too works on the inner layers of the skin as well as the facial muscles, thereby tightening the facial muscles as well as stimulating collagen and elastin production in the skin, further adding to a youthful appearance. Finally, face yoga also increases blood circulation in the skin, thereby aiding in cellular regeneration and removal of toxins—leading to a healthy, supple glow and a gradual lessening of wrinkles, sagging, and fine lines.
Here are 5 face yoga exercises to do to actually put your best face forward! To really make a difference, do these five exercises at last 5 times a week—and within a month, you will see a noticeable tightening of the facial muscles and a more youthful appearance as well. Anti-aging, at its natural best.
1. Poof Away Those Dark Circles
Other than resulting from sun exposure and sleep deprivation, dark circles can also be caused by blood pooling and a thinning of the skin around the eyes. So here’s one exercise that increases circulation to this rather sensitive area and also relaxes any strained muscles, thus also aiding in fine line removal. This will ease the muscles around the eyes, take any eyestrain away, and slowly tackle those dark circles, too.
- Hold your hands near your eyes and make a thumbs-up gesture—thumbs extended upwards/outwards and all four fingers folded to form a fist.
- Using gentle pressure, make circles around your eyes with your thumbs—over the eyelids and under the eyes for 2-3 minutes.
2. A Cheeky Move
If you want supple cheeks that are not too hollow and not jiggly either, do this cheeky exercise.
- Take a deep breath from your mouth and puff up your cheeks as much as you can. Hold this puffed up pose for 10 seconds.
- Release your breath slowly.
- Repeat 10 times.
3. Pucker Up For A Pout
This exercise will give you plumper lips and ruddy cheeks and also tackle any laugh lines.
- Smile as widely as you can—like really grin, and bear it for 10-15 seconds!
- Now pucker up for a kiss and hold this for 10-15 seconds as well.
- Repeat this 10-15 times.
4. Work That Jaw
This exercise will tackle any loose and sagging skin around the chin and neck as well as work on the excess “jowly” weight on your neck—thereby giving you a slimmer, sleeker neck and chin.
- Jut out that jaw as far as you can—work towards a Neanderthal appearance.
- Now holding that jaw, look up as far as you can and hold for 10 seconds.
- Again, keep the jaw jutted out and touch your chin to your chest, holding for another 10 seconds.
- Repeat 10 times.
5. Just So Surprised & Scared!
This exercise relies on two comical “I am so surprised” and “I am so scared” looks. It works the whole face out, tightening the skin, increasing blood circulation, and reducing the appearance of fine lines and adding radiance to your face, too!
- For the first, pucker up the lips in a kiss and go as wide-eyed as possible—you can practice this in front of the mirror to get the look right.
- Hold for 10 seconds and then shift to a wide-eyed, open-mouthed scream (think the Scream mask!) and hold for 10 seconds again.
- Repeat 10 times.
This face yoga should not take more than 10-15 minutes of your time, and it can be done at any time of the day and just about anywhere—though we recommend somewhere private, lest you get too many strange takes!
