Most of us usually practice a good skincare routine and regular facials to keep our skin at its utmost tip-top conditions. When mention yoga, the first thing that pops into our minds is exercise and living healthy, however, did you know that face yoga is equally significant too? Yes, it seems that our face requires an exercise regimen of its own. Many people have sworn by face yoga as it helps to tones the face and neck. Beauty Insider wants you to incorporate face yoga into your skincare routine so that you can attain youthful and healthy-looking skin.

What is Face Yoga?

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Face yoga is a form of facial exercise that helps to tone and isolate the muscles on the face. Similar to a regular yoga exercise, face yoga focuses on strengthening the specific muscles through certain exercises. Just imagine all the smiling, chatting, and squinting eyes that we do daily, all of these will eventually reflect on our faces. Therefore, face yoga is one of the most important routines to minimizes these effects.

What are the Benefits of Face Yoga?

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Yoga has been known to improve our overall well-being, but when we added face yoga to the routine, it is the epitome of perfection that does wonders for our skin.

  • Reduce the signs of aging
  • Enhance blood circulation
  • Plump up the skin
  • Firm the neckline
  • Improves lymphatic drainage
  • Promotes healthy and glowing skin
  • Release muscle tension
  • Relieve stress
  • Helps to make the face symmetrical
  • Lessen the symptoms of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders

5 Face Yoga Exercises for Beginners

We have listed five face yoga exercises that are suitable for beginners and over time you can incorporate a harder yoga routine once you have mastered these exercises. One of the tips when doing face yoga is that you can include positive affirmations to further enhance relaxation and promotes self-love. Most importantly, you need to open your heart and considered this as a form of ritual for yourself.

1. The warmup

It’s important that you do a face warm-up first before you dive right into face yoga. Pus this pose is suitable for beginners before they proceed with more complicated exercises. Furthermore, warm-up also helps to relax the muscles on your face. Besides, tense muscles contribute to asymmetrical faces and wrinkles as the muscles became harden and inflexible. So, try out this warm-up pose to improve your blood circulation.

  1. First of all, drop your jaw like you’re yawning and you should feel a sensation on the cheek area.
  2. Then move your eyes to the ceiling without moving any forehead muscles
  3. Hold the position for about 10 seconds
  4. Repeat the routine two times for 30 seconds

2. Neck massage

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Let’s be honest, we tend to forget to take a good care of our neck equally like the face. Plus, signs of aging is also noticeable on our neckline, hence it is important that you incorporate the neck massage into routine to helps tone and relax the muscles on the neck and jawline.

  1. Relax your shoulders and move your chin up at 45 degrees to the right side
  2. Pucker up your lips
  3. Hold the pose for about 10 seconds
  4. Then switch to the opposite side and make sure to do one side twice in 30 seconds

3. The eye

Crow’s feet, eye bags, fine lines, puffiness, and wrinkles, are the common skin concerns that people can’t get away from. Sooner or later these issues will appear and most of us opt for an eye cream to prevent them. However have you ever thought of incorporating eye yoga to combat it effectively? The next pose specifically for the eye area in which emphasizes the lower eyelid movement. Primarily when you’re doing this pose keep in mind that you need to avoid moving your forehead. 

  1. Curl your hand in a C shaped, then place the index finger just above the eyebrows and the thumb on the side of the nose. 
  2. Make sure to relax your body especially your shoulders and open your eyes wide. 
  3. Hold the position for about five seconds and most importantly press the index fingers firmly to ensure that you do not move your brows and forehead.
  4. Next, squint your eyes five times and close them about a few seconds before repeating this pose two times in 30 seconds. 
  5. Repeat a similar routine on the other side of the eyes. 

4. Plump up lips

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One of the signs that we notice when we’re started to aging is the loss of plumpness on our lips due to collagen depletion. Do you ever wish that you could always have kissable and luscious lips? Well, you can if you consistently do this facial exercise. Feeling intrigued? Keep reading peeps!

  1. Place both of your index fingers on the corners of the mouth and smile.
  2. When smiling make sure that your front teeth can be seen and both corners are at a parallel level
  3. Slightly curl the tongue on the right side for 5 seconds and repeat the same exercise on the left side.
  4. Repeat the same routine twice in 30 seconds and breath properly throughout the session.

5. Face tapping

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This is considered the easiest step for beginners as most of us have already used to tapping our faces when applying skincare products. Besides, a face tapping routine helps to promote blood circulation and induce relaxation, making it the perfect addition to your daily routine.

  1. Firstly place your fingertips on your forehead and begin to rhythmically tap the skin. 
  2. Then continue the tapping exercise towards your jaw. 
  3. Move along the front of the neck and then the shoulders.
  4. Continue to the back of the neck and to your head. 
  5. Finish this routine by rubbing your palms together and once you feel the heat, place your palms over your head. 
  6. Take a deep breath for 1 to 3 minutes.

Author: Balqis Ariffin | Date: 29th March 2021