One of my favourite quotes from the children’s author Roald Dahl is: If you think happy thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams & you will always look lovely.
I think this is so true…happy people who look after their wellbeing seem to just glow.
And that’s why Face Yoga is about more than just exercise for your face.
I’m a 51 year old menopausal women. I am lucky that I have always had a good complexion because I drink a lot of water. But recently, especially when I was doing Facebook lives I would look at my jaw line & think, ‘Mmm looking abit jowelly there, Bannard!’
I also started noticing some fine lines around my mouth & of course the heavier nasal labial lines either side of my mouth. As a yoga teacher & mother I have always been keen to approach ageing in as natural & holistic fashion as possible. I’d love my kids to embrace growing old gracefully & to have inspired them to do as much.
So I knew it was time to do some proactive. I’d bought a book on Face Yoga several years ago & had flicked through it a couple of times but it kept getting discarded on the shelf. So this time I signed up for a course online.
I have started getting up 90 minutes before the kids to do my yoga & meditation practice before the rest of the house is even awake. It’s been a game changer for me. Everything seems to flow with more grace & ease & I feel happier & healthier having done what serves me before I do anything else, it also makes me more productive, creative & efficient. So it was easy to incorporate an extra 20 minutes into this routine to fit in Face Yoga.
And I have already started to notice the differences: the jowelly-ness is definitely diminishing, the fine lines around my mouth seem less noticeable & the nasal labial lines don’t seem so deep. My face feels like it is glowing & I’m more confident going online to teach without worrying that I should put a fine layer of war paint (make-up) on first.
So what is Face Yoga?
It’s a natural way of looking & feeling younger & healthier. You can think of it as pro-aging: slowing & delaying the ageing process.
Face Yoga is a beautiful combination of exercises for the face, acupressure, massage & relaxation. We have 57 muscles in the face which benefit from small movements & repetition. Just as exercise is good for the body, so it’s good for the face – as we strengthen & tone the muscles in the face this smoothes, lifts & firms the skin attached to the muscle.
Collagen & elastin have been falling by 1.5% every year since we were in our early 20’s. This is the tissue which helps to give our skin that health glow & plump youthful look. Massage is simple & easy & helps to relax & calm the face & the mind. Massage also relaxes the muscles & is great for circulation, improving the blood flow, feeding the skin, removing toxins, improving lymphatic drainage & boosting crucially collagen & elastin.
Acupressure is an ancient Eastern philosophy. By applying pressure to certain points it has the same benefits as massage whilst reducing headaches, improving sleep, reducing stress, improving energy flow in the body & boosting wellbeing all round.
And finally there’s the all important relaxation. Learning relaxation techniques is important for mind, body & the face. We can often show tension in the triangle of stress (furrowed brow, the 11 marks between the eyes, clenched jaw & tight shoulders), learning to recognize & release this tension can often help to shift the mental anguish that caused it in the first place. Relaxation techniques help us to become more aware of & reduce stressors, whilst becoming consciously aware of what our face does & gently softening these areas of tension, intentionally relaxing the face helps reduce lines, jaw ache, headaches & boosts our wellbeing. This helps us to feel good about ourselves, loving who we are…and once we start loving how we look & feel, guess what, to starts to show, we start to glow & always look lovely!
I recently tuned into some additional online training to support what I had been learning in the course & was staggered to learn that a recent study revealed that women who practiced face yoga every day for 20 mins for just ½ a year saw an average reduction in the age of their face of 3 years! And that’s all natural & holistic: no invasive procedures or expensive supplements.
So buzzing with excitement I decided to share what I am learning with you, my amazing tribe. This weekend I am launching the first Face Yoga Workshop. Running online on Zoom, we will practice different exercises, acupressure & massage for each part of the face, beginning the session with some breath awareness & finishing with a relaxing meditation. I am also gifting a 20 min video highlighting my favourite techniques so that you have your own practice to follow everyday until the next workshop, which I am hoping to deliver every month.
We start this Sunday 23rd May at 2pm. If you would like to secure your spot on this workshop please email me at alex@alexbannard.com .
If you can’t make it, as always a recording is available for you to revisit at your leisure going at your own pace – if you would prefer a recording, please let me know in your email.
I can’t wait to share the amazing techniques I have learnt so that you too can start to see the benefits…let the sunbeams shine out of your face & you will always look lovely!