Your Inner Fountain of Youth: Yoga for the Face

He reminds me of Jackie Chan
"Take this, wrinkles!"

    Do you remember how your mother said "If you keep making that face, it might stay that way forever!"  Turns out she may have been right.  We hold so much tension and suppressed emotions in our faces, often we don't look our youthful best.
    Over the past weekend I had a booth at the Victory of Light festival in Sharonville, Ohio.  I was lucky enough to be right next to Sebastian Rey Skin products.  The men at the booth were so much fun, it was like having a floor show all weekend.  Even more important, they looked so young!  As the Expo began to wear down, we had more free time to talk.  Now, a girl never tells, but these men looked about 20 years younger than they were.  Talk about a ringing endorsement for self care.
     Tuesday's yoga class brought this into the physical by relaxing and restoring the face from the inside.  It is always so interesting to find how much tension we store in the eyes and jaws and how easy it is to release it (if only for a little while).  Here is a shorter version of the practice to use at home. (Writing this blog post has been very relaxing, because I keep doing the acupressure points to figure out how to accurately describe them.)
     (The beginning massage is loosely derived from Acupressure's Potent Points: A Guide to Self-Care for Common Ailments.  I highly recommend this book! It explains acupressure, then offers relief for what ails you.)

image from Healing Journeys

• Begin by taking a comfortable seat in a chair or on the floor. Settle into the present time and place. Notice your breathing for several rounds.
• Move to more conscious breathing.
• Inhale and imagine it enters through the front of your throat (your fifth chakra).
• Exhale and imagine it exits through the front and back of the throat.
• Allow the breath to settle and bring your hands into prayer pose (anjali mudra).
• Tip your head gently forward and bring the joined hands to your forehead, touching the index fingers to the third eye (the point between your eyebrows). Rest here for a few breaths.
• Keeping the index fingers in place, spread your palms (keeping palms facing one another) and gently place your thumbs on the bone at the outside our your eyes (right where crow's feet begin to form). Rest here for a few breaths.
• Place the index fingers on your jaw, right below your ears.Keep hands off of your face. Rest here for a few breaths.
• Move the index fingers to the back of the neck, about half way between shoulders and base of the skull.  Slide the index fingers about an inch from center line and gently hold. Rest here a few breaths.
• Place index fingers on the base of the skull (occiput). Rest the index fingers about two inches out from center line on the big tendons.  Hold for several breaths.
• Complete by brushing down the whole body. Begin by gently brushing the face with your hands, moving down the neck and whole body. Crown pull, moving the fingers out from center line on your whole scalp, massaging the head. Pull hands out from center line for the neck, top to bottom and finish by pulling hands over base of the neck to shoulders.

Cat-cow (Majariasana)
from Women's Health

• Come to table pose (svanasana) on your hands and knees.Exhale, round your back into cow. Inhale, arch back and look up into cat. Move through cat-cow (majariasana) with your breath for several rounds.
• Allow the body to settle back into table pose (svanasana).
• Move through cat-cow again, but this time inhale into cow (not cat!), arching your back high.  Imagine that you are inhaling through the back of your heart. Exhale, opening the front of your chest, moving into cat. Continue for several rounds.
• Now time to add the face. As you exhale for cat, open your mouth and eyes wide, sticking your tongue out just like the guy in this picture (keep those eyes open). Continue for several rounds.

• Settle back to table, relax your face, turn your toes under and stretch back to downward facing dog (adho mukha swanasana). 
• Since this is our first down dog, stretch out your legs, moving from side to side to open the backs of the legs and hips.
• Settle back to your downward facing dog, then begin cat-cow just like the last time on your hands and knees. Inhale, round your back up to the sky, breathing in through your heart. Exhale, open your mouth and eyes, sticking your tongue way out.  Move through cat-cow for several more rounds.
• Walk your feet up to your hands, coming to uttanasana (standing forward bend). Place your hands on your hips, inhale to mountain pose (tadasana).

    Now that your face muscles are awake and alive, on to your regular practice.  Do a few sun salutations paying attention to relaxing the face, particularly the eyes and jaw.  Soften the eyes and give a small smile (think smiling Buddha, not Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland).

    I like the first sun salutations to be very gentle, walking back and forth rather than jumping, and making the poses very gentle variations, continuing to pay attention to the face.  Work your way gradually up to jumping back and forth between uttanasana and plank and more vigorous poses, always softening the eyes and jaw. 

    Continue to inversions and standing poses while relaxing the face. End with corpse pose (savasana), setting an intention to relax your face consciously every day. Dip into your inner fountain of youth.