Why Face Yoga Works

At &Spirit we are committed to show you ways to feel and look more beautiful in the most nourishing and healthy ways.

While we believe strongly that beauty is coming from deep within us, we also know that it can be hard looking into the mirror and seeing the effects of time and stress on our face.

We all came to this earth for a reason, so we think its vital to find ways of slow ageing that do not compromise our ability to use the full the emotional spectrum of our face to communicate with the world around us.

This article is designed to give you an overview of our favourite natural beauty practices to slow down ageing and relieve stress and tension for a more open and vital face.

Face Yoga and why it works

Face Yoga is on the rise. Still the idea of training our face seems new to us, even though we know about the positive effects that training has on our body. Your body ages differently with exercise. Your face does too.

But let's take it one step at a time.

To understand why Face Yoga works, we first have to look at how we perceive the youthfullness of another person.

The Triangle of Youth

Do you know that feeling when you see somebody who "should" look older but doesn't? That's usually because of something we call "The Triangle of Youth."

When we age our facial structure naturally moves from a focus point in the upper face, to a focus point in the lower face. We loose volume around the cheeks and temples, and the lower face becomes more heavy and accentuated.

With consciously training of the facial muscles and adding volume to the upper face, while lifting the jaw area, we look younger already. We can use the concept of the Triangle of Youth to our advantage, no matter how old we are. It’s like a training map for our Face Yoga practice.

Face Yoga - Gua Sha - Taping - The Magic Trio

Face Yoga - Strengthen your muscles

We already established that it is vital that we built up volume in the upper face if we want to counter the natural ageing process.

With this exercise you are building up the area around your temples as well as your cheek area while naturally reducing crows-feet.

Sample Exercise: Cat Eyes - naturally reducing crows-feet.

This exercise is designed to release tensions that cause crowsfeet as well as toning the muscles in the eye area.

This is how you do it:

• place the palms on your temples so that you cover the end of the eyebrows.

• press into your temples backwards and upwards until you feel a little pull in the corner of your eyes.

• Squeeze your eyes shut.

• Hold for 30 seconds. Then relax.

• Repeat for about 5 times.

A full Face Yoga Sequence will be available for you in our Virtual Spa very soon.

Gua Sha - Fascia Release, Increased Circulation & Blood Flow

We learned in the recent years, that working with the fascia of the body is extremely important. The fascia is next to many other functions vital for keeping our muscles well nourished. Also when we have built up tension in the fascia we experience wrinkles, which wont go away until the fascia and muscles underneath are relaxed. That’s what botox essentially does: Relaxing the muscle underneath. But there are other ways to help our facial muscles relax.

Gua Sha

Rooted in Chinese Beauty Tradition working with a Gua Sha Stone is incredibly helpful to relief facial tension and increase blood flow and circulation.

This video takes you through a 5 min Relaxing Gua Sha Sequence (Beginner Series).

Check out our Wellness Products We Love collection for our favourite Gua Sha Stones and Face Oils.

Morning vs. evening? Do your Gua Sha practice in the morning to get rid of puffy eyes, stagnation and support lymphatic flow. To wind down, relax and prepare yourself and your skin for a good nights sleep, use your Gua Sha in the evening.

Face Massage

Face Massages are an incredible way to release tensions in the face too. Stay tuned for more videos coming up on the &Spirit Youtube Channel.

Face Taping - Reprogram your facial muscles

Did you know that we have a facial posture like we have a body posture? So there is an equivalent to forward slouching shoulders happening on our face. Problem is that we usually are not aware of that posture nor do we know how to change it. That’s where Taping comes into place. We use kinesio tape to show our facial muscle how a relaxed state actually feels like and how we can do things differently. Like (in the case of forehead lines) get your point across without lifting your eyebrows all the time.

This doesn’t mean that we have to walk around with tape on our face forever. We just have to use certain occasions to show our face how it feels like and reprogram our behaviour. Kind of like reminding yourself to sit upright in your chair, lower your shoulders and place your feet on the ground.

Make Home Office your ally

Maybe you are the kind of person who frowns a lot when concentrating on your work. Try placing a little dot of Kinesiotape in between your eyebrows while you work to actively train your muscles not to do that any more.

Use your Beauty Sleep

If you have problems with jaw tension you know how active our facial muscles are during the night. So this can be a perfect time to reprogram your facial muscles.

To learn different taping strategies visit the &Spirit Virtual Spa.

Bottom Line: It’s within your power to change

We hope that after reading this article you know: There is not only “good genes” or botox. With the knowledge and a little bit consistency you can change the trajectory of your ageing process forever.

If you want to learn more about Face Yoga, Gua Sha and Taping, stay tuned for our Virtual Spa that will be available for you very soon and is designed to give you all the tools to apply the above strategies (and more) at home.

Sign up for the Waitlist to be invited to our launch event and profit from early booking perks. We can’t wait!

This Article was written by Isabelle Brockbals, Founder of &Spirit, Face Yoga Teacher and Gua Sha Facialist.