Can Face Yoga make you look less stressed?

One of the many side effects of living in the Covid-19 pandemic is the impact on your skin, caused by stress, increased screen time and wearing face masks.

While government guidelines have encouraged us to keep our bodies active to stay healthy physically and mentally, here is a solution for the damage additional stress and anxiety has caused to our faces.

British Face Yoga’ expert Danielle Collins, 38, has devised a simple 5-step routine that she claims will not only boost your complexion, but also lower levels of cortisol and adrenaline in your body.

The exercises take minutes to complete and Danielle insists you’ll notice a difference in just 10 days, with frown lines less intense, reduced puffiness around the eyes and an easing of the dreaded ‘turkey neck’ aggravated by hunching in front of a laptop.

The Danielle Collins Face Yoga Method, which combines face exercise, massage, acupressure and relaxation, is popular among celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Meghan Markle and Gwyneth Paltrow.

“Negative emotions, such as sadness, grief, worry or anger, show on our face,’ Danielle told FEMAIL. “It is hard to hide negativity that is going on inside.  Along with the physical reasons how stress ages the face, the thoughts and emotions related to stress can show in many ways too.

“Each muscle in the face has a particular function and needs to be looked after differently; some need to be strengthened and lifted, others need to be released of tension and some need training to be relaxed.

“These exercises give people really achievable, simple things that they can do to lower stress and anxiety levels. This means you will have less cortisol and adrenaline in your body and this will then make your immune system stronger.”

THE JAW TONER 

  1. Take your index finger, middle finger and thumb on both hands and gently pinch along your jaw line, toward your ears, pinching and releasing. Do this for 30 seconds, only ever moving upward.
  2. Then, take your thumbs and place them next to each other on the chin at the jaw line. Stroke them along the jaw, away from each other.
  3. Lift them off when you reach the ears and start again. Do this for 30 seconds.

    Face yoga expert Danielle Collins has devised a five-step routine that claims Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as fans.

FROWN LINE SMOOTHER 

  1. Make your index fingers into little hook shapes. Then using your knuckles, stroke upward along your procerus muscle between your eyebrows.
  2. Start from the little dip at the top of the nose and stroke all the way up to your hairline at the top of the forehead.
  3. Keep doing this massage motion, only moving in an upward direction, for one minute.

    Face yoga expert Danielle Collins has devised a five-step routine that claims Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as fans.

EYE DE-PUFFER 

  1. Place your index fingers just under the outer edge of the eyebrows, then very gently smooth the fingers under your eyes and pause at the inner corners for 10 seconds, pressing this acupressure point.
  2. Continue in a circle down under your eye and back to this acupressure point again, pausing for 10 seconds here each time.
  3. Keep the massage going for 1 minute.

    Face yoga expert Danielle Collins has devised a five-step routine that claims Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as fans.

TECH NECK SOOTHER 

  1. Place your four fingers of both hands behind the back of the neck, gently pressing in to the muscles either side of your spine and tilt your head back so that the fingers press in to the muscles a little deeper.
  2. Bring your head back to the starting position and repeat again, slowly and with control. Do this 30 times in total.
  3. Then hold your hands in position and tilt your head back and hold there, wiggling the fingers a bit, perhaps even doing some circular massages. Do whatever feels intuitively right to release your neck.

    Face yoga expert Danielle Collins has devised a five-step routine that claims Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as fans.

TURKEY NECK TONER 

  1. Tilt your head back as far as is comfortable for you. Gently close your lips.
  2. Repeatedly bring the tip of your tongue up to the roof of your mouth and back down. Do this 60 times for a minute.

    Face yoga expert Danielle Collins has devised a five-step routine that claims Jennifer Aniston and Meghan Markle as fans.

Danielle now has 800 teachers of her Face Yoga Method accredited in 50 different countries. She said 2020 has been a transformative year for lots of people.

“Many of us will have been taken away from our support systems and that structure we are used to and a lot of people will have higher stress levels, but some will have enjoyed working from home,” she said. “’This year will have made people realize what’s important and what comes first – it’s about happiness, health and family.’

Image courtesy of (Visual courtesy Sakshi Gupta/Instagram)

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