FaceYoga by Kari

The first newsletter of the year 👆🏼

Time to talk about the breath, the body, and how both interact to affect the face.

Follow the link in my bio to sign up for email updates 📲
and register for this Sunday’s free live-streamed yoga class 🤗

So important to protect your eyes from the sun! Tension builds up in the eye area from squinting in the sunlight - even a micro squint! 😎

I try to keep a visor with Menon sunny days and even wear sunglasses in winter 🥶… Yes I’m on of those people 😅

Try it out and see if it helps with eye tension. Your eyes will thank you!

It was time for some me time…

I’m away in Greece for a week to reset and reflect and most importantly…rejuvenate.

First time away since Christmas 2019 and I’m savouring every moment.

It’s a great reminder that taking care of me gives me the inner resources to give to others.

Got eye tension on my mind…

What do you think? 🤔

Do you have persistent eye tension?

Are you into having thick and full lashes?

Let me know in the comments👇

New to face yoga? Start with face massage.

No matter how zen your lifestyle may be, face massage is always the first step of every new face yogi.

Here's 3 reasons to start with face massage:

1. best way to learn about *your* face (which is unique)
2. quickest way to start getting noticeable results
3. demonstrates the power of face yoga techniques

1. You’ll learn your own facial ‘landscape.’

You'll begin the process of learning important information held in the muscles and tissue of your face.

The tense and sleepy ‘numb’ areas reveal themselves.

This becomes the foundation your face yoga journey - wherever it is you want to take that journey.

Face massage reveals insights into *your* particular tensions, sensitivities, and habits. These will be different to everyone else's in one way or another.

And having that awareness is like striking gold! The more you learn about your face, the more you can influence it.

The key is that it is self-regulated.

When massaging our own faces with our hands - more benefits become available to us. If we have another person do it for us, a whole host of benefits get missed out on.

The highly personalised and internal experience of using your own hands to explore your own facial landscape is irreplaceable.

More on that in reason #3.

2. It’s rapidly transformative!

Changing the face

I recommend starting with face massage because it can deliver easy wins to first timers.

Face massage can iron out expression lines even during the first session! There's nothing better than feeling and seeing that.

Just like most good things in life, results from face yoga take timeeeee.

It is variable from person to person but it can take weeks, months or longer.

Nearly everyone experiences noticeable changes in the circulation and condition of their skin. Most feel more refreshed and have a more relaxed look afterwards.

Some people even notice visible improvement in expression lines at the end of one session!

What makes it so rapidly transformative?

Most of us repeat the same facial expressions day after day. Over time, we develop tensions and little ‘muscle knots’ in the face.

These ‘overworking muscles’ tend to come along with ‘sleepy muscles’ that atrophy over time.

The combo of overworking and sleeping muscles forms folds in the skin, sagging, and expression lines. This can happen to anyone regardless of age - even youngsters!

Face massage can start to iron out the expression line even after the first face massage. There’s nothing better than seeing and feeling that.

Gimme some of that sweet sweet relief (and positive reinforcement)!

Healing the nervous system

The benefits don’t stop there. Doing self-face massage relaxes what I like to call 'the prosocial nervous system.' Aka the the vagus and cranial nerves.

What I mean by 'prosocial nervous system' is the part of us that is involved in socialising: talking, kissing, negotiating, arguing...

Just overall relating with other human beings (and even other mammals!).

The human prosocial nervous system is an essential part of our survival and well-being.

When we are feeling threatened and unsafe, our prosocial nervous system turns off.

We switch to the fight/flight/freeze response.

If this becomes chronic, we experience anxiety, depression, PTSD, and chronic illnesses.

Face massage relaxes the prosocial nervous system and helps heal our nervous system from past trauma.

3. Empowering you from the get-go.

By using our own hands, you feel the face with your hands while simultaneously feeling your own hands with your face.

This is a great example of an activity that is both...

- exteroceptive, meaning sensing the ‘outside’ (i.e. how your face feels to your hands) and

-interoceptive meaning sensing the ‘inside’ (i.e. how your hands feel to your face, muscles, tissue, etc).

Don’t underestimate the healing potential of this process!

We are literally awakening and rewiring our neuro - circuitry as we sculpt and contour our faces. And the beauty of it is that you don’t need anyone else to do it - you don’t even need me!

Only YOU will know what feels good, what doesn’t, and what pace is right.

All I am here to do is show you what YOU can do for your face.

No matter how long I’ve been doing face massage - jaw massage will always be my fave! 😍

Benefits of jaw massage

✅relaxes the jaw muscles, helping to define the jawline and cheekbones

✅helps with facial asymmetry and provide relief from tmj pain

✅opens the breath, helping us breathe with more ease (thanks .tree)

It feels amazing and helps to relieve stress. There are more benefits then I can list right now!

It never gets old 💕...

What’s your favourite massage?

Want to learn optimal face posture for anti-aging and health? Join me in this biweekly face posture class ❤️

Top videos from last month: Define your jawline -

Top videos from last month: Define your jawline

Mewing was a total gamechanger for my face during my face yoga journey. Check out my latest YouTube video upload for a mewing tutorial and workout! 👅🤸‍♀️

If someone told me this when I started, I would have found it helpful.

Here are my six recommended steps for starting a personal face yoga practice.

Have you tried any of these yet? Would you be interested to try it out?

Let me know your thoughts beautiful people ❤️