Yes, admittedly, this sounds strange. I don’t practice this regularly with my students as it has the tendency to make them fall about laughing too much (especially on one yoga holiday I ran where we did it on the beach much to the bemusement of onlookers!). Yet I do practice it at home when no-one else is looking! I would really like to share a short routine with you because so many people, myself included, hold so much tension in the face and neck. When I ask students during a yoga class to relax the face you can see them letting the stress go.
Time to relax.
It’s amazing that sometimes in a yoga class we are so focussed on what the body is doing from the neck down, we forget to release stress in the face. Test yourself now. If you are holding your jaw together, teeth touching, you are holding tension in the face. Are you pushing the eyebrows together, causing a crease on the forehead? Try and hold your facial position and look in a mirror. Are you holding tension? If so, then here is a remedy for you, you’ll feel fresher and you’ll look younger – no surgery or expensive creams necessary and if you have a young baby, toddler or older child they will find you incredibly amusing and probably join in!
Yoga for the Face & Neck: A 5 mintue workout!
1. Close the eyes and take 3 deep breaths. Be aware of relaxing the forehead and jaw.
2. Drop the chin towards the chest. Lower the shoulders and take another 3 breaths.
3. Slowly lift the chin. Place your hands behind your head, supporting/cradling it and look up.
4. Turn the head gently to one side then the other.
5. Slowly drop one ear towards one shoulder and change sides.
6. Open your mouth and eyes wide.
7. Screw up your face as much as you can, making the features as small as you can.
8. Push your mouth towards an ear, then repeat to the other side.
9. Lift your eyebrows high.
10. Imagine chewing a really chewy toffee, moving your mouth around your face.
11. Lift your shoulders up toward your ears and gently relax. Repeat.
12. Give your face a little massage with your fingers, making small circles all over the face (avoid the area under the eyes)
13. Finish with Lion Pose for the face. Stick you head forwards, look up, stick out your tongue and go ‘raaaaar!’
See, now don’t you feel better.
Namaste.
